By Romy Stephens
The Mount Evelyn Community House hopes to spread positive messages about gender equality through its Gender Equality Clothesline Project.
The project will see Mount Evelyn work with other community houses across the outer east to raise awareness and promote action towards gender equality.
The project is split into two stages.
The first involved creating activities to encourage conversation and the second – starting this week – will promote positive messages during 16 Days of Activism.
Mount Evelyn Community House manager Nicky Condello said the campaign is about engaging the entire community.
“It’s really about positive relationships and it’s about gender equality from the ground up,” she said.
“Across and throughout our community whether that’s a sporting club, a school, general community, workplace.”
As part of the first stage, Mount Evelyn Community House hosted a gender equality night, where attendees wrote positive messages on tags and placed them in tea cups.
Mount Evelyn Community House member Anna Griffiths said it was a night in which women worked together to create at inclusive atmosphere.
“We focused on inclusion and equality for all,” she said.
“It was a very positive night which was really fantastic.
“We had the table set up like a kitchen table because when people sit down they talk and as women we traditionally sit there over a cup of tea and solve the problems of the world.”
During the gender equality night, messages were also stenciled and written on bags and t-shirts.
These items will be hung up on a clothesline at the community house over the next couple of weeks, with a new message added each day.
The 16 Days of Activism is an international awareness campaign that runs from 25 November to 10 December.
As part of the 16 Days, Mount Evelyn Community House will also host a morning tea on 28 November, which is open for the public to attend.
Other groups involved in the Clothesline Project include Yarra Ranges Council, Maroondah City Council, Knox City Council, each, edvos, Women’s Health East and Community House Association of the Outer Eastern Suburbs.
