PREPARING for her third Carlton Respects Round, Jess Dal Pos can only speak highly of the new education initiatives launched by the Carlton Respects program and has her looking forward to seeing students put their learnings to use in the community.
Speaking to JoyFM during the week, Dal Pos gave her own insight into how useful the 'Road To Respect' program encourages all age-groups to take part in the program.
The 'Road To Respect' modules facilitate conversations with primary school students about learning boundaries and basic human rights, something that Dal Pos is glad to see being introduced into schools.
“It’s a really wonderful initiative, I’ve actually done the program myself (that’s aimed at school-aged kids) and what it’s all about is prevention. The prevention of family violence, prevention of violence in any form really,” Dal Pos said.
“Essentially students learn about bullying, boundaries, what their rights are as people and individuals and have conversations with their peers about how we treat people and just about keeping themselves and their friends safe”.
As well as the online component of the course, the 'Road To Respect' program also includes school visits from Carlton players, something which Dal Pos looks forward to, knowing she’ll see the learnings from the program in practice.
Getting amongst an age group that is seeking inspiration and new ideals highlights the importance of Carlton Respects to Dal Pos and the playing group as a whole, as they themselves learn about what’s being taught and how it impacts the young generation.
With a lot of the lessons introducing prevention of bullying and early-stage violence, as well as stereotypes and exploring gender roles and the societal impact, Dal Pos endorsed these topics being brought up to primary-aged students in a way in which they would understand.
“I did a roll-out with Breann Moody to a primary school last year and the kids absolutely loved it, and they had some really good conversations about what it means to be a friend, what it means to be an ally and what it means to actually have and set boundaries,” she said.
“There’s a lot of stuff in the 'Road To Respect' program about gender roles and gender norms and how gender fits into how you may be treated, and I think it gives the students a holistic understanding of how people work”.
On top of the classroom programs, Dal Pos knows that wearing orange during the Carlton Respects Game will start conversations with parents and their children.
Although the 'Road To Respect' online learning modules are aimed at school students, Carlton Respects and this weekend is about having those conversations with others.
“On game day we wear orange and we see on the banner, it gets talked about and it's a really good opportunity for people to have conversations about things like that in their life” she said.
“They reflect and think maybe “hey, I’m not in a situation that I may be safe, what are my avenues to get help or to maybe help someone else?”.
