Blacktown’s future the focus at White Ribbon breakfast 2018

Blacktown’s students were told they hold the power to shed the region’s unwanted title as Australia’s “capital of domestic violence” at Monday’s White Ribbon breakfast.

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Blacktown’s students hold the power to shed the region’s unwanted title as Australia’s “capital of domestic violence”.

The community united against family and domestic violence at the sixth White Ribbon breakfast at Blacktown Workers Club on Monday morning, which this year focused on engaging youth to ‘break the chain’.

Students from schools in suburbs across the area, including Mt Druitt, Doonside, Blacktown, Rooty Hill, Shalvey and Hassall Grove, listened to powerful speeches about the impact the “scourge” of domestic violence has on the community.

Mitchell High School students at the White Ribbon breakfast at Blacktown Workers Club.

Workers Club Group chief executive Dale Hunt said the level of violence local families was exposed to was “inconceivable and unacceptable”.

“We’re happy to tell our council that they need to fix our footpaths. We’re happy to tell our government they need to fix our taxes,” he said.

“But we don’t tell our own mates that we need to fix our attitude. It’s time to change.”

Mayor Stephen Bali (right) and Blacktown Superintendant Trent King (second from left) attended the event.

Former Blacktown Superintendant Gary Merryweather was the MC.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Jones said the power of education in creating change could not be underestimated.

“Historically this has been a ‘social issue’. It is not a social issue, it is a crime,” he said.

White Ribbon Australia’s Dale Palmer said one in four children were witnesses to domestic violence.

“That’s in any classroom in any school,” he said. “We cannot send that generation out into the world with that figure — it has to change.”

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Jones.

Mitchell High School student Liam Gilleland.

Mitchell High School Year 12 student Liam Gilleland, who produced a news report-style video shown at the breakfast, agreed.

“I thought more students need to know about it,” he said. “It needs to start in schools.”

About 600 people attended this year’s event held each year around November 25, White Ribbon Day, to raise money and awareness.