Introducing the theme for 2024 - Caring Conversations

Family violence is a toxic visitor inside 20% of Australian homes*. Australia pours $22 billion annually into services to cope with the consequences of family violence. This is why the Run Against Violence's mission is simple yet powerful.

We are building communities where family violence can no longer live.

We know that this is a big vision. However, we also know that over time, this will be achievable with the help of our RAV community. Our annual flagship event, the Virtual Challenge, allows us to rally our community together to progress our four-point plan: 

  • Create caring communities

  • Support respectful relationship normalisation,

  • Encourage healthy self-esteem and

  • Ensure reliable services are available when people reach out for help

The theme for our 2024 Virtual Challenge is “Caring Conversations”, which is nestled in Area 1. This is reflected in the designs of this year’s merchandise and on the sleeves of our t-shirts this year with the tagline - Listen, Learn, Care.

*Personal Safety Survey 2022

Developing Skills to hold Caring Conversations

We know from listening to so many RAVer's across the country that you are often concerned with how to start conversations with people who you think might be experiencing violence.

We know that you are concerned you might say the wrong thing or make things worse.

During the event this year, we're going to be talking to experts, people with lived experience and our RAV community and sharing these conversations on the new season of our podcast to help you develop ways that we can all have Caring Conversations.

With that in mind, our brief for the 2024 merchandise range was to create a design that reflected this thinking.

We are pleased to announce that Alex Reeks nailed the brief with the 2024 range. Below, you can see how her design is reflected in our merchandise range for 2024.

 

A little about Alex

Alex is a 24-year-old artist based in Sydney, Australia, currently studying for a Bachelor's degree in Architectural Design at the University of Sydney.

She had this to say about her winning design...

"Art and design has always been my passion, and I love creating works that represent causes and ideas that I believe in.

Entitled "Conversations," my artwork is a contribution to the 2024 Run Against Violence campaign, centred around the theme of "Caring Conversations."

In this piece, I strive to capture the essence of empathy and understanding through a scene depicting two individuals engaged in a harmonious, reverberating dialogue.

The image is entirely symmetrical, conveying a sense of mutual respect, balance and compassion."

Our hope for the 2024 Virtual Challenge

What can you do to help us achieve our aim during the 2024 RAV Virtual Challenge?

Each year, our community of RAVers contribute to Run Against Violence, getting closer to our goals by doing the following:-

  • Building and promoting camaraderie within the communities where the run occurs is a big part of why our event is so successful. Our RAVers tell us this each year—they love the camaraderie and sense of community that occurs during the event. We build on this yearly, reaching out to more postcodes and people nationwide.

  • Raising funds from the challenge that supports RAV's chosen initiatives and programs. We have raised over $1 million since our inception and have donated over $400000 to the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) Love Bites Program, among other family violence prevention initiatives in the last four years. We also recently provided seed funding that enabled the development of the recently launched TunedIn Modules developed by the NAPCAN in conjunction with the Australian Catholic University - Institute of Child Protection.

  • Being a voice for action and prevention in your communities is critical to our success and achieving our shared goals. We can only do this with your help.

So, as we move into August 2024, the countdown to the Virtual Challenge starting time of August 30th gets closer. Will you join us in helping build communities free from family violence?

What will you do to contribute to Caring Conversations in your community?

Register for the 2024 Virtual Challenge here now.

Adventure Digital