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Distressed young woman sitting on bench with phone

9 November 2021

No one should ever feel unsafe – but contact Safer Community if you need help

As a Deakin student, you have access to a range of health and wellbeing services. One of the most important of these is Safer Community – our central point of contact for behaviour that makes you or others feel unsafe, including reports and disclosures of sexual harm and family violence.

Types of threatening behaviour

Sexual harm is any unwanted sexual behaviour that you have not agreed to. It can take many forms, including touching, exposure, sexual images taken or shared without consent, or any form of sexual penetration.

Family violence is any violence that occurs in current or past family, domestic or intimate relationships, such as between parents and children, siblings and intimate partners. It includes behaviours such as:

Concerning behaviour includes anything that:

How Safer Community can help you

If you experience or witness any of these types of threatening behaviour, or ever feel unsafe in your home or at uni, Safer Community is here to support you. This includes assisting you with a safety plan if appropriate or providing advice and referrals to other services.

Our trained professionals are experienced in dealing with this kind of trauma – and it doesn’t matter when or where it happened. We want everyone to feel safe while they’re at Deakin – whether you can physically come to campus or you’re studying online.

Visit the Safer Community website to find out more, including what will happen if you make a disclosure, how we manage your privacy, and what ongoing referrals, support and monitoring are available.

How to contact Safer Community

Safer Community is not an emergency or crisis response service – we only operate during business hours. If you or someone else needs immediate help, please contact Victoria Police by calling Triple Zero (000) or Deakin Security on 1800 062 579.

For confidential assistance, contact us during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am–4pm) by:

Other information and help

There’s a range of support services available, both at Deakin and in the community. And remember that if your personal situation becomes dangerous or unsustainable, you can leave home to escape family violence at any time, regardless of the current COVID-19 situation.



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