PCLC’s “This is Not Who I Want to Be” youth theatre project is a preventative community legal education initiative for CALD secondary students that was set up in 2022.
In November 2024 the project received a bronze award in the community-led category of the 2024 Australian Crime and Prevention Awards. You can hear more about the project in this video.
Through our Strengthening Legal Pathways for CALD women program and our family violence services, we noticed that some CALD teenagers were already experiencing controlling relationships and family violence. We also received feedback from our community partners that some young women were going on to forced marriages after leaving school. There were also reports about negative behaviours exhibited by teenage boys, supporting concern about young people participating, perpetuating and experiencing family violence.
The project is conducted in local schools in the City of Casey and uses a highly interactive and participatory theatre performance to increase students’ legal literacy about family violence and forced marriage. In addition to educating young people about their legal rights and responsibilities and how to access legal and other support services, the use of theatre aims to challenge attitudes that downplay or excuse violence by inviting the students to connect with the characters in the story and create longer-term attitudinal change.
The project has been delivered in partnership with Uniting’s KOMAK program, and was funded by the Victoria Law Foundation.
Read more about the project and see Kirsten Young from our community legal education team in a VLF Enhancing Engagement webinar here:
