S2 Ep5: Community Change Starts Here
SHOW NOTES
How do we change the culture in our community about family and domestic violence? That’s what we explore in this episode of the Run Against Violence. You’ll meet the dynamic duo of Robyn Harmon and David Harmon. Robyn is a school teacher, Assistant Principal and facilitator of the Love Bites program that the Run Against Violence proudly supports. David has led the charge via their local Rotary Club to change the culture in their local community of Ballina around family and domestic violence.
Also in this episode:
Robyn shares why she thinks the Love Bites program is so powerful,
David shares how the Love Bites program can be used as a catalyst to generate conversations and change the culture in the broader community,
Meet Laura from the Lalor Running Club in our Team Spotlight.
You can support the efforts of Run Against Violence by donating at https://www.runagainstviolence.com/donate
If you or someone close to you is experiencing family violence, please talk to someone. You can call 1800 RESPECT (Australia only) if you would like to talk to a professional service or if there is an immediate threat to safety call the police on Triple Zero (000) (Australia only).
THE RAV PODCAST IS ALSO AVAILABLE AT
TRANSCRIPT
Jen: So welcome back. It is the 2nd of August, 2022, which means that the Virtual Challenge starts this month! Four weeks today to be precise. So I hope that last week's episode, which we called the Ultimate Virtual Challenge Survival Guide was helpful for you. And that you've implemented a few of the tips shared by my guests.
So this week on the podcast, we're exploring how we actually change the culture in our community around family violence. And you will meet the dynamic duo husband and wife team of Robyn Harmon and David Harmon.
So Robyn is a school teacher, assistant principal and facilitator of the Love Bites program that Run Against Violence proudly supports. And David has led the charge through their local Rotary club in Ballina to create an awareness campaign around family violence and domestic violence in their local community.
Now Love Bites, if you don't know, is a program run by the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect or NAPCAN. It's a respectful relationships education program that's run in schools for young people, aged 11 to 17. And in the past two years, RAV has invested $200,000 into the Love Bites program. And 100% of donations this year, 2022, will also go to directly supporting NAPCAN and their Love Bites program. So in this conversation, you'll hear Robyn share why she thinks Love Bites has been so effective. And David also shares his perspective on how the Love Bites program has been used as a catalyst to create conversation and change culture, not just within our young people, but within the broader community.
Jen: Robyn, David, welcome to the podcast.
Robyn: Thanks.
David: Lovely to be here, Jen.
Jen: So excited to talk to you, both because as I said in the intro, we really wanted to dedicate one episode to essentially community based programs, seeing the impact of Love Bites in the community and what other organisations are either doing to support Love Bites or in their own way to help to change the culture. And you two are so perfectly positioned to, to share that story with us today. So thank you for being here.
Robyn, I thought I'd start with you. So what going take me back, what was your first exposure to the Love Bites program? How did you first hear about it?
Robyn: Well, quite a while ago, when our son was in year 10, he brought home a permission note to be signed for him to attend a Love Bites program. This was in Coffs Harbour, where our children went to school. And when I read about what Love Bites was, I said, yes, you know, straight away, this is great. And I myself was teaching a new program for disengaged, at risk kids in Coffs Harbour. I sort of started to explore a bit more about it if I could sort of integrate it into my programs as well. So that was our first exposure to it. And then really not again, until moving to Ballina and being in the position I am now, as an assistant Principal Learning and Support and working across both primary and secondary schools, a lot of my work is around behaviour. And, yeah, I thought then that the Love Bites program might be a fit, but it wasn't really until Dave came up with the bigger concept of, having an awareness raising campaign about domestic violence and family abuse that we really thought about Love Bites again.
Jen: Wow. So that was, it was in your head that your son had done it and obviously enjoyed it. As an educator saw it as an effective program, just parked that seed in the back of your head and eventually in this new role in Ballina that you started thinking about how you could implement that program again.
Robyn: Yes.
Jen: And so David, you are with Rotary. what was the catalyst for you to really push domestic and family violence prevention as a major campaign within Rotary in your area?
David: Yeah, thank you, Jen. Back in 2018, about midway through 18, I went to a funeral of a friend's sister that got murdered in Melbourne, in front of her three children stabbed to death.
And I was sitting there listening to the eulogy and, I happened to be the incoming president for our Rotary. And I can remember thinking there on the day, I think this might be a really worthwhile cause to adopt in my year as president in for our club. So I came home and spoke to Robyn and said, Rob, you know, I really think we should take do something about this.
And being in Rotary for several years, Rotary is a really respected brand. People know it, respect it. And I thought now, if a Rotary club can stand up and start advocating and creating awareness of domestic violence in our town, people are gonna listen. So I took it to our club as a new president and our club unanimously accepted it, thought, great. Yeah, we need something new. We need something to get our teeth into. So that's when it all started.
Jen: Wow. And Robyn, from your perspective as an educator inside the school system, what is it about Love Bites that is so effective? Yeah. Why does it have the impact that it seems to have?
Robyn: That's a great question, Jen. So for my role alone, I would get a referral in a school for an individual student and, you know, go in and try and fix that situation. And often it's about communication. And why do students behave or misbehave the way they do. And it really wasn't until I started facilitating Love Bites myself, that I came home to Dave and I said, it's all about respect. Like even our student’s misbehaviour is about them not respecting themselves, not respecting others, not feeling respected in the way they treat each other, their peers, their parents, their teachers. It all comes down to respect. And the ability to have so much more reach. See I've been an educator for over 30 years, but I've never had the reach of the sheer number of students ever before than I have with facilitating a program like Love Bites.
Just last year I got to meet and work with every year seven student, every year eight, year nine, year 10 student across two high schools. And I've never been able to achieve that before. I've had groups of students, but never like the whole grade and just listening to young people. It's the perfect program as you don't teach, you don't lecture to them. You facilitate a discussion. And so the students tell their own stories and you learn from them, things that as a teacher, the kids would never tell you otherwise. And I think the impact of seeing the students grow in the time that they participate in the program from their original attitudes to what they are at the end of the program is quite profound with a lot of students.
Jen: Wow. Isn't that interesting, like remember Kirrily saying to me once that the solution to changing our culture around domestic violence is conversation. And I remember this was several years ago now, and I remember thinking like, it's not simple, but can it, sorry. It's not easy, but can it be that simple? And I think that's what I'm hearing you say around the Love Bites program.
Robyn: Absolutely. I believe so. And it's yeah not telling people what they need to know or what they should be doing or how they should be doing it, but just generating those conversations where they give you a little bit of information and then you lead sort of a discussion in a certain way, or you just filter a little bit more information in, let them discuss that.
Robyn: And slowly over time they tend to yeah change their attitude towards things. It's like an awakening..
Jen: Oh, wow.
Robyn: And like Dave said, you know, we're hearing people speak about it differently now than they were very initially in the community. Yeah.
Jen: Can you give me some examples?
David: And we can, and I was maybe going to just say, it's an interesting thing. I think Love Bites just fits in with like, I was mentioning before Jen, that we have that three stage approach where we have a raising awareness and advocating against domestic violence with our walks and campaigns. We run providing financial support for women and children escaping domestic violence and then the education arm.
But, and for me personally, I do believe that three stage approach is the way to go. I think Love Bites on its own is a bit out there and a bit lost without having the awareness and advocacy campaign as well.
Robyn: I agree
David: Because that's what gave that's what gave us in our town, in Ballina, that's what raised the profile. That's what got the community listening. They saw, you know, 800 people walking down the street led by Rotarians saying, we say 'no to domestic violence'. 'Break the silence, stop the violence', chanting with slogans. People listen. And that subconsciously goes in their head like, oh, this is different. Like what's going on. But then, then you come in with Love Bites and you go, yeah, well, you know, this is what's happening in our town. We've got all this domestic violence happening, but now we wanna educate our youth about respectful relationships and we want to break the cycle and by putting that together, all the communities just were so much on side.
But Jen, yeah, we just find in general conversations, just so within our Rotary club, but just within society in general, getting the word out there, just having the conversation, breaking down the stigma of DV and being able to have just a conversation without being threatened or finding it threatening.
And we believe that's happening in our town. And that's a big step. To get that, you know, where the conversation's happening. Radio interviews. I'd have a radio interview each month over the two year period I was president and DV would be one of the topics every time.
Jen: Wow.
David: That had a big reach. Byron Bay, Mullumbimby, Murwillumbah, Lismore. And I'd get phone calls after every interview. There'd be phone calls...
Robyn: Yeah. Where do I go for help?
David: And, sorry, that's a good point, Robbie. It's interesting because my phone number's out there and people hear it and see it. And Robyn's often with me, like I have a lady ring me, Dave I'm in a domestic abusive relationship. Where do I go to help?
Robyn: They may have already left, but what's next? I'm really struggling. Can Rotary help? Can you help? What do I do for my kids?
Robyn: But some of the conversations that come to mind for me is when we first started talking to our club, a couple of the Rotarians said, oh, you know, we've never had domestic violence in our family. And I would both say, how lucky are you? We're really happy for you. And it wasn't till, a couple of weeks later, all of a sudden one particular gentleman came back and said, oh my goodness, I didn't realise that my daughter-in-law's sister was being abused by her husband and another one, oh my niece. And you know, we'd met some of these people. Oh. You know, so, and so, yes. Oh, well, I didn't realise she was being abused by her husband and she's left him. And so it enabled, we think, conversations to open up in families. And I think for those young women in those families, they say, oh, well, my uncle's in Rotary and Rotary standing up and saying no to this. So perhaps that uncle, all of a sudden became a safe person or space to open up that conversation with. I'm not quite sure if that is the case, but that was really an eye opener for me.
Jen: Even just hearing you talk then, like I just had this, it feels to me in many ways that almost like Love Bites... Love Bites is no doubt, a very profound and impactful and effective program, but it also has this amazing ripple effect. Because for example, you know, you're talking about Love Bites in Rotary, and that is facilitating conversations between people who have never discussed it before, never thought that they knew anyone affected by it before. And so Love Bites might be the origin of it, but it's having these incredible ripple effects throughout the community that is ultimately changing the culture of the entire community. Not just our school age children, but the rest of us as well.
Robyn: Yeah. Yes. Very true.
Jen: David, you said to me something earlier, too, before we started recording about that, you still think, and it, it probably ties into what Robyn was saying too. You still think there is some unconscious bias there, particularly amongst older generations, shall we say, around DV? Can you share more about that?
David: Yes. And I think a generalisation is probably if you look at some men, 50 and above, I'll probably, I'll just use that as an example. I often get asked to go and be guest speaker at Rotary clubs and Rotary in generally was known as a conservative businessman's club originally. That's our origin.
So I found that it was to talk about domestic violence that we're sort of okay. But when you hit the coercive control area, about it's not accepted that the male should control the bank account, should control the phone. He wants to know where you are all the time. When you started approaching these sort of topics, very, very uncomfortable. So I really do believe in that age demographic there is still quite an unconscious bias there that men, some males, I can't say many. Some males still see, if you like, it's their right. Or their role.
So, and I believe you're far better off putting your energy, and Robyn and I believe, it's far better at putting energy into our youth and educating our youth and educating at the right time where you can mold and basically give them a template to what life should be like as far as respectful relationships go, then trying to bring around a change of a 50 or 60 or 70 year old. I think you've just got no hope. That's where we put so much of our emphasis onto our youth and Love Bites ticks every box. And as Robyn said, it's all about respect, mutual respect.
And it's whether it's in your job, in your relationship, in your friendship, it's all about respect. And that's something that, as Robyn said, really click with Rob and I, the key word is respect. So, yeah, we firmly believe that's where we put up so much of our energy and resources funding, into Love Bites.
Jen: And so there'll be people listening to this who are either inside corporations or organisations. What advice do you have someone who's trying to, or thinking about, introducing that sort of program and how do you measure success? Like how do you actually show people that your programs that Love Bites, that whatever you are doing in the community to change the culture, is actually working.
Robyn: That's a great question.
David: So if you look at every organisation these days would have a diversity equity and inclusion policy. And I would firmly believe that respect for relationships, like we say, in a workplace in a relationship, friendship is critical.
So Love Bites, as I say, ticks every box, as far as, educating our youth about respectful relationships. So whether a corporation or a company would like to be involved there and provide support to NAPCAN, for example, I think it would be money very well spent.
But also within Rotary, we're a worldwide organisation and we have a diversity equity and inclusion policy. And we have much work to do in that space ourselves. We don't have an ideal environment in many of our clubs. So I think respectful relationships needs to be looked at more widely.
And Rotary certainly, as I was mentioning earlier, Jen is looking at taking out domestic and family violence as a national campaign throughout Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, next year. And we would very much be looking, once we start hitting the airwaves and promoting this, we would love to have corporations on side to support that initiative that we're doing next year.
Jen: That's amazing. And I think it goes back to what you were saying too before about the conversations. That conversation is how we change the culture. So the more conversations we have, the more people we engage with the topic. Then ultimately, hopefully, that is how we change things.
David: Yes.
Robyn: Yes. Sorry. I was just gonna add what I love about Love Bites is it brings together so many organisations. So you have the opportunity to work with Police, Health, Social Services. I'm trying to think who else. Yeah. Sexual assault workers, education. So it brings so many in together, but often we're all working in isolation. So I have my role in education. Kiah has her role in policing. NAPCAN have their role, that sort of thing. So often we're almost a one band show trying to, you know, we're on a treadmill running. But we come together and the power and the force of that is great because everybody brings a different perspective. And then for something like a service club, like Rotary to come in, it's like validating all those people that are working so hard. And I don't know about you, but I find a lot of workers in those spaces are women. So, quite often, you're trending that fine line about, oh they're feminists and they're man haters and they're this and they're that.
But having an organisation like Rotary and men in Rotary like Dave leading the way standing up saying this has to change. It's just so much more powerful, but it gives so much validation to the work that's being done across all those organisations. So I say any corporate or any other organisations that wanna get on board? I think our formula is working for us. The fact that we started with the awareness raising, advocacy campaign. And we were doing the support for the victims alongside of that too. And Dave and I recognized you're supporting victims forever and a day because it's always going to be people surviving domestic & family violence, unless we bring about that change. And how can we do that? And that's when we thought, what's already there. Love Bites was just the natural go-to for us to really bring that all together. But like Dave said, each and every aspect of that campaign is so important. Yeah. It's not one alone.
David: Yeah. They do.
Robyn: Yeah. And they're getting more credibility because of that. We're not leaving the victims and survivors alone to fend for themselves. We're still there. And other agencies have come on board with that program. We've tapped into other, like Escabags. We're now a stockist and distributor and we're able to get those out into schools and other places to be accessed. So I think, it just keeps growing.
David: I think the power of Rotary here is that like Rotary is a community organisation made up of community members from all different parts of life, different careers and so on. So when you can get a Rotary club on side with a cause like this, that connects the community and we have the contacts in the community. And I think that's where this is model, if you like, it's been very successful in that, yes we have brought all the agencies on side, but what has been so enjoyable for Robyn and I is, or an outcome that's so great, is the partnerships we've formed even nationally with NAPCAN, and the New South Wales and Queensland Police. And health. And so we have these relationships and partnerships that are just so fantastic. And if we can roll this out next year into a national campaign, bring on board more partners and, you know, I can just imagine, my idea in my head is that on the 24th of November next year, that we'll have all Rotary clubs around Australia on the streets, on the footpaths. Same day, banners, placards, shirts, saying no to domestic family violence. And I can just imagine the impact, and the media attention that that will give. And from that, that basic platform that we get on that day, then we go, right, let's go again. And that's where we go, right? Because the question will be asked, well, how do we change this? The way we change this is educate our youth that gives the in [to talk about Love Bites]
Jen: That's amazing. And going back to what you were saying too, about the advocacy support and then education essentially for the younger generation. I just thought of a three legged stool. Like we need those three elements, to change culture and that education component that Love Bite sort of ticks the box on is equally important, but you're right it's how we actually change things going forward.
David: Yeah. Yeah. You know, in our wildest dreams, we couldn't imagine from 2018 moving into 2021-2022 that we would be where we are today.
Robyn: By talking to you on a podcast!
David: We're just a simple little Rotary Club in Ballina in New South Wales, and we're just two members of that club. But from that little thing, it's just grown and to be able to drive a national campaign in New Zealand as well next year, I mean, I think it's fantastic.
And the cause is just one of the most relevant causes you could find. And I think that's why it's been so successful that it is a cause that's very topical today. It wasn't so much back in [20]18. I think it's got a lot more gravity in the last couple of years.
Robyn: It's more in the media.
David: It's more media attention now, and sometimes we get asked the question, why do you keep going? What drives you? And I think, and you mentioned earlier, Jen, how do you measure outcomes? Well, I think, if we've helped to save one life, it's all worthwhile. It's a hundred per cent worthwhile. And I mentioned earlier, Jen, in Ballina itself, how the culture in our town has changed. In our local government, where our Ballina Council is our biggest advocate now of support when we want to close roads and so on where they were initially very objective and weren't supportive. They are a hundred per cent behind us now. And like the police, the SES, health, they all wanna be part of it, cause they can see the relevance.
Robyn: Sporting clubs, other service clubs like Zonta and Scope.
David: And our local indigenous community are really supportive. So it has really enabled, as Robyn was saying, the networking has been fantastic. We're all there for the same cause.
Robyn: Yeah. I think we measure our success on that. The fact that people still contact us and saying, what are you doing? How does that work? Can you come and talk to us about it? When we do that go, okay, we wanna do something similar and they'll pick up maybe one aspect of that.
You know, quite a few more Rotary clubs are getting involved in being trained as facilitators for the Love Bites program. So that's exciting. We take examples of student artwork when we go and speak to show them. Every program ends with the creative arts component where students have a voice and they're able to express what they've learnt in either art, music, or dance.
But when I facilitate, I always do it as an art session. And yeah, just to have those slogans that then towns can use for their walk against domestic violence. Really powerful. It's coming from a student voice. Those students are creating their own campaigns and just to see the awakening in the students, when they finally get to that final session and they're starting, to write their words
Jen: it's funny you say that. Cause I was thinking, how do you, so as a facilitator, as the person in the room with the kids during Love Bites, how do you measure success? Like how do you measure the impact of it?
Robyn: Like Dave said, there's always a survey at the end of program. So I'd collate those.
Like the year 10 program is done in one day. It's three workshops across a day. But year seven, eight and nine programs is a lesson than a week over eight weeks. So I get to see it in different formats, not just one day, but over a period of time. So I would say the conversations as they change between students and then students towards facilitators and staff in the space changes over time. The questions that the students ask. They're not always in agreeance with what's being proposed to them. There's still some boys that will stand up and say, no, it's my right to know when my girlfriend is 24/7.
And if she doesn't respond within a certain amount of time or then she's in trouble. That sort of thing. And not even what I would then say to them, it's what their peers say to them. That's where the power is, you know? When a girl stands up and she goes, no way, glad I'm not your girlfriend. . And in some of the programs I've even seen, there's been obvious relationships. The boys and girls have been holding hands throughout the whole entire day and. And then staff or counsellors will contact me a day or so later and say, oh, we had a bit of fallout from Love Bites this week. Some of the relationships have broken up and we're like, oh, wow. Okay. But what was interesting was in quite a few of the instances, it was the boys breaking up with the girls, recognising that they weren't treating them with respect.
Jen: Oh!
Robyn: Yeah. They were like, oh, oh, okay. This isn't the relationship for me or how I'm being in this relationship isn't what I should be doing or how I wanna be in future. So they're breaking up and the girls are devastated, cause quite often they'll have that relationship under any circumstances. Another surprising factor you know, for some, it's more important to have a boyfriend than not have one at all. And so you take that boyfriend however he chooses to treat you. So, not always goes to how you think it's going to be. It's really, really interesting.
Jen: I have to thank you both. Cause you have actually really opened my eyes, not just to the Love Bites program, but to the impact of it and how it can, and what you've done so beautifully in your area is, weave this web, between organisations, between people, from the council to Rotary, to Police, to the schools. And I just picture this safety net, like somehow protecting our community, that get stronger and stronger and stronger the more that we talk about it. The more that there is integration and collaboration between organisations. The more that we just bring this issue to the surface. So yeah, that's really powerful.
David: Yeah. I think more widely speaking, as I mentioned earlier, Rotary has the power to bring it together.
Robyn: It's given us the platform. School alone wouldn't have done it for me.
David: No, you can't work in isolation with this. And an interesting thing just to add, like drug and alcohol abuse, mental health, DV, homelessness. They all interlock. And for example, next month, our Rotary club's running a mental health symposium in Ballina, and we've been able to bring some of the leading speakers in Australia to Ballina. But what is the more powerful thing has done is bring together all the local service agencies, support networks for mental health work in our breakout room, which hasn't happened before.
Because we're really worried about the mental health of our youth in the area, especially after the recent floods. And that's been the driver for this. So again, that's just another offshoot, if you like, of the DV space. But again, the power of Rotary is the community connection that's brought all the local agencies, counsellors and everything together to put this night on. So, yeah, that's sort of the power we have as Rotarians that probably no other organisation in Australia can do.
Jen: Yeah. And my hope is for anyone listening to this in an organisation, in Rotary, in an organisation like Rotary, in a Council in a one of those organisations that can be part of this solution. Here's what you have done in Ballina, and takes the lead in a similar way, because I think that's really, so profound and so impactful what you've done in Ballina. And if we could see something similar rollout across the country, then you know, we'd go a very long way to solving this problem.
David: Uh, thank you.
Robyn: Yes. And even for organisations like to give the space to Love Bites. So we're having lots of people trained as facilitators, but quite often we put a call out. There's one at the moment, Nimbin Central School, which is west of Lismore, is wanting to run Love Bites for years nine and 10 next term. We need three facilitators and someone can come and observe. But we've got all those facilitators on paper, but their organisations aren't releasing them to go and deliver. That's a frustration, to be able to keep the momentum of the program. The schools are coming on board, they're saying, yes, we need this. And then we are letting them down again, by not being able to provide a required number of facilitators in lots of cases. So it's for everybody to stand up and I try and sell it now, you know, just give me one or two days, volunteer your time, one or two days a year. It's all I'm asking. I mean, I'd like them every week. If I can just get to commit to one program, that's better than none.
David: As you would understand Jen, it's understandable in the current situation of police, health. And so on are just under the pump with so much with the floods and everything else. And they just can't release staff. They get redeployed, we get redeployed and so on. But look, it's a day at a time and, you just keep chugging along. And, when you look back each year or each month, you're moving forward. Your momentum is going forward. So we are hoping, maybe if we look back in another couple of years that it's even bigger and better, you know?
Jen: Amazing, amazing, gosh, well, you have absolutely inspired me. I actually wanna do Love Bites now myself, never mind facilitate it. I'll get an email from Robyn now. Thank you both for sharing your time today and what you're doing in Ballina region. It's just extraordinary. And I hope someone listening to this is equally inspired and willing to pick up and run with it in their local area because you know, you and Rotary and the whole community up there is just going a long way to changing the culture. And yeah, just that snowball. We've just gotta keep that snowball going.
Robyn: Absolutely
David: Thank you so much.
Jen: How amazing are Robyn and David? As I said, in that conversation, it's made me realise not just the effectiveness of the Love Bites program at changing the culture within our school-aged kids and younger population, but how that program has become a catalyst for conversations about family and domestic violence in the broader community, amongst groups that have never discussed the topic before and amongst people who thought they didn't know anyone who had been impacted by it. And it really has reinforced to me that conversation is how we change the culture. So, so good.
So let's wrap up this episode with our final segment. But before that, don't forget that the registrations are now open for the RAV Virtual Challenge, which starts four weeks today. Registrations will be open until the second week of the challenge in September. But you don't wanna wait that long. So make sure you register your team and organise a few friends to join you.
And if you don't have a team, don't worry, you can still be involved. Head to the website, register yourself, and the amazing people behind the scenes at RAV will find a team for you.
Now, finally, let's wrap up this episode with our segment, where we highlight and hear from one of the incredible teams who are participating in the challenge this year. Today, we have Laura from the Lalor Running Club. Welcome Laura.
Laura: Hi, my name is Laura and I'm from the Lalor Running Club. We have three teams in RAV this year, and we've been involved in Run Against Violence for the last four years. And I've been sort of head captain, those four years. My team is based mainly in Lalor and the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
But I'm actually from Sydney. I used to live in the area and used to be part of the club while I'm still part of the club. But I moved to Hawaii for three years and participated from Hawaii. And now I'm in Sydney. And that's the best thing about RAV is that it brings people together from a lot of different places and you can still feel like you're all on the same team.
I asked our team, about what they loved about running in the Lalor area and the northern suburbs of Melbourne. And lots of people said that they love running and walking in their local area because they feel safe and they always bump into people they know, whether they be from the Lalor Running Club or the different clubs that are in the area.
And the dogs and, uh, they love seeing the dogs in the area. We're lucky in the northern suburbs to have a lot of rail paths. And we've got the Plenty Gorge, which everyone loves running in as well. I'm yet to really run a lot up here in Sydney. So I can't particularly answer that question, but I'm hoping that RAV kicks me up the bum and gets me running again.
What do I love about RAV? I love the cause, but it starts for a conversation. And for us at Lalor, it really has started conversations. We've had people in our team, the first and second year, actually share in our club their experience with family violence. And when I spoke to one of the teammates to ask her if I could mention that in this podcast, she said that from herself putting that in our club page, she's had people reach out to her, off the page, to share their stories that they never felt comfortable sharing because they were fearful. So you know, they now know that they have that person who's been through a similar thing.
The other thing I love about RAV and lots of our teammates said they loved about RAV, was the competitive spirit that's in it. We started back the first year with one team. So it was very friendly. And it was just all about our team making it to the end. But as the years have gone on the second year, we had two teams and it was myself and my best friend Kirsty. We were the team captains. And so the club pitted us as, you know, best friends battling it out together. And Team Chilton won for the record, which is my team.
And then the next year we had three teams. And so, it was the three teams battling it out. We have a Facebook group where the banter gets played along on the 19 days and it gets very cutthroat and actually, I was on a different time zone last year. And my team and Team Elchen, who was the president of Lalor Running Club, or is still the president of Lalor Running Club. We were neck and neck coming to near the finish line. But I was on a different time zone. I went to bed thinking Team Chilton had it in the bag and there was a late night meeting, a late night coup, on Facebook messenger and Team Elchin all got up very early the next morning before I was awake and very early, even on Australian time romped it at home and beat us.
So Sarah, can't be a team captain this year, but it's Team Tarbery. And he was the leader of the coup last year. So I know we're gonna be under some stiff competition this year. So that's what I think most of our team would love about RAV is that that competitive spirit.
So that's it for this week's episode of the 2022 RAV podcast. Thank you so much for being here. Don't forget to register your team and then we would love it. If you would share this episode with one person or your entire team, I'm Jen Brown and I will chat to you next week. Bye for now.