Charlotte Heller and Rose Dee open Project Pink boxing gym for DV survivors
When a Mackay mum began a career as a personal trainer, little did she know her program would be supporting dozens of women escaping households tainted by DV.
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When Charlotte Heller began a career as a personal trainer, little did she know her program would be supporting dozens of women escaping households tainted by a domestic violence crisis ‘riddling the city’.
“I realised that after a period of time that 80 per cent of my clients were victims of domestic violence,” she said.
“For such a small town and with 95 per cent of my clients being female, I was sure there was an issue here.”
When she saw what she described as a “gap in the system”, the mother of two decided to open a boxing gym for victims of domestic violence, including teenagers and adults.
Beginning in December last year, the gym teaches self defence, fitness and even journaling classes to help people deal with the trauma and mental health impacts of the abuse.
But Ms Heller said the gym would do more than just provide an outlet.
“If there are life skills that they have missed growing up, then they can learn these things throughout the program and then they will learn to pass this on to the next generation so that they can break the cycle of domestic violence for the next generation,” she said.
“These are basic skills that aren’t talked about a lot.
“For longevity, especially with the cost of loving, I think we need to have programs that are known about and spoken about where we need to have autonomy over finance on the other side of domestic violence and understand how to look after ourselves financially.
“It keeps them stuck in an abusive relationship where they are so dependent on their partner where that relationship becomes financial abuse.”
Project Pink is a volunteer-run program open to the whole community and is headed by Ms Heller and Rose Dee.
The program’s launch will kick off on Wednesday with a morning tea at the CWA Hall with organisers selling second hand active wear at $5 a piece to raise project funds.
Ms Heller said while the gym will run out of the hall for the time being, they are working to secure a lease for an empty studio on 212 Victoria St to run the gym permanently.
“We’ve had really good feedback,” she said.
“People are pretty on board with having another program in a town that is so riddled with domestic violence.”
Last month Mackay Women’s Services (MWS) revealed 2300 walked through their doors in four months with a 220 per cent increase in police responses to domestic and family violence in the past 10 years.
Those figures have sparked a new partnership between the service centre and Mackay-Whitsunday Police, with a specialist police officer now embedded at MWS offering firsthand support to victim survivors.
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Originally published as Charlotte Heller and Rose Dee open Project Pink boxing gym for DV survivors
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