VWT x Melbourne Storm
Since 2010, the Victorian Women’s Trust has been in partnership with national rugby league club Melbourne Storm. We’re proud to be walking alongside an organisation which shares our commitment to gender equality.
Since 2010, the Victorian Women’s Trust has been in partnership with national rugby league club Melbourne Storm. We’re proud to be walking alongside an organisation which shares our commitment to gender equality.
This partnership has been one built on respect and a commitment from both to achieving real results.
Over the journey, our partnership has helped develop and deliver a range of harm prevention programs, including Be the Hero! and Club Respect.
As part of the Women in League Round (2020), Melbourne Storm encouraged their community to donate to the Alma and Albert Tivendale Sub Fund — supporting girls experiencing disadvantage to overcome barriers to participation in physical activities, such as sport and dance.
Be the Hero! was a web-based violence prevention program launched in 2009 that encouraged young men to build respectful relationships with women and choose to live a life free of violence. Melbourne Storm came on board as a VWT partner in 2010, and implemented the Be the Hero! program with their Under 18 players.
In 2012, the partnership continued, and we collaborated with Melbourne Storm to deliver education programs to under 18 and under 20 representative players. This also saw Storm implement the ‘Storming Against Violence’ week of action, with gender violence prevention specialist Dr Jackson Katz.
Meet Melbourne Storm’s Brian Phelan and Peter Robinson, the team behind Storm’s Player Welfare & Wellbeing program.
We interviewed Brian and Robbo for the 2019 VWT Story Project, read more to find out what partnering with an organisaion like VWT meant to them.
Club Respect is a harm prevention initiative, created to support grassroots sporting clubs to embed a culture of respect and harm prevention in all their practices. Melbourne Storm’s Brian Phelan and Peter Robinson were active members of Club Respect’s Critical Friends Group from 2016-2018. They both also joined Club Respect’s Panel of Expertise in June 2020.
Ahead of Melbourne Storm’s Women in League Round match against the West Tigers on Saturday 19th September 2020, Melbourne Storm are highlighting our long-standing partnership. Storm are encouraging their community to donate to the Alma and Albert Tivendale Sub Fund.
Linda Tivendale established the Alma and Albert Tivendale Sub Fund to honour her parents, whose lifelong motto was: ‘You don’t just do things for yourself; you do it for others’.
The Alma and Albert Tivendale Sub Fund will fund projects which: