Forum to KO anger

By Shaun Inguanzo
A FORUM in Springvale could provide a critical cure to the violent behaviour infecting Greater Dandenong’s homes and streets.
Windermere Child and Family Services and the City of Greater Dandenong Council are today hosting a community forum at Springvale’s council office to brainstorm initiatives that would turn Greater Dandenong into a non-violent city.
Windermere admits the task will be a massive challenge. And local policing statistics tell a similar story.
Victoria Police statistics show that crime in Greater Dandenong skyrocketed 10 per cent from 2005 to 2006. The toll was 13,000 incidents during that 12-month period – almost 1000 more than Frankston, which held second place at just over 12,000 incidents.
Last Friday a man was stabbed at a boarding house in Dandenong.
In a separate incident, a man was bashed in the head and ribs by intruders in his Keysborough home on Thursday, 24 May.
Police this week charged a Noble Park North mother with seriously assaulting her nine-year-old daughter.
The Victorian Government last year launched a Victims of Crime Charter outlining the rights of victims as a step towards tackling violent behaviour.
Forum organiser and Windermere’s Victims of Crime worker, Anne O’Dwyer, said the forum would allow residents to meet and brainstorm initiatives to reduce and one day eliminate violent behaviour in the city.
Ms O’Dwyer said the forum was the culmination of feelings among fellow workers that it was time to tackle violent behaviour.
She said there was a prevalence of violent behaviour where poverty was rife – such as Greater Dandenong.
“Factors that work against building a non-violent community are poverty and oppression. That then leads to disconnected communities,” she said.
“We are asking people at the forum ‘what are your dreams?’, and ‘what would you like to see happen in this community’?”
In a similar forum at Hastings, Ms O’Dwyer said residents suggested anger management programs, media campaigns against violence, and positively promoting ‘devalued’ social groups – such as gay people, Muslims and single mothers – as ways of preventing violent behaviour.
Ms O’Dwyer encouraged more residents to visit today’s forum, which runs until 4.30pm at the Springvale council office in Springvale Road.