After going into liquidation just over a year ago, the White Ribbon Australia movement, which seeks to eliminate gendered violence, has been re-established.
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The charity closed in October 2019 with over $840,000 in debt and controversy over some of its positions on abortion, the choice of and expenditure on staff, its acceptance of donations from poker machine interests, and the public utterances and actions of some of its male ambassadors.
The White Ribbon Ballarat committee was independent of White Ribbon Australia; however its activities and events were reduced by the liquidation and the pandemic. White Ribbon Ballarat was endorsed by groups including Sovereign Hill, the North Ballarat Football Club and Central Highlands Water
White Ribbon Australia was bought by Perth-based service provider organisation Communicare in May 2020 and is now established as one of four platforms of the organisation's structure.
Laura Springer is the new White Ribbon Ballarat president. She says the organisation is now seeking to be more inclusive of a wide range of views and focus on community at a grassroots level.
Hopefully, Ms Springer says, White Ribbon will regain both the trust of the community as well as the members it had previously built up in Ballarat.
"There is a sense of excitement about its future direction, and the impact it can make around Australia," Ms Springer told The Courier.
"We're currently looking for new members to join our committee, and want to reach out to as many people as we can to get diverse representation and ensure every voice is heard. It used to be that you could represent your community or your workplace. Now, you can either do that or you can come on as an individual."
Ms Springer says many of the organisations and groups associated with White Ribbon have remained.
"So we do have people who work at by Sovereign Hill, obviously they're staying on," she says.
"But we're trying to attract as many people from all the places of Ballarat."
Ms Springer says her elevation to president of White Ribbon is something she's been working towards.
"For the last few years I've been volunteering on a couple of different boards and committees. And I came across White Ribbon Ballarat in 2017. I loved it and wanted to be a part of it. When the opportunity came up, I put my hand up for it, because I really believed in what White Ribbon was trying to do.
"I really liked its new focus, and it's clarifying its message and working from a grass roots level. I had a baby 18 months ago, and I've got some time on my hands. So I really wanted to work with them."
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