You’re never alone: Safer Community can help if you feel threatened or harmed
We want everyone to feel safe, respected and included while they’re at Deakin. As a student, you have access to a range of health and wellbeing services. One of the most important 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.
What does threatening behaviour look like?
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:
- physical violence (hitting, choking, use of weapons)
- emotional or psychological abuse (intimidating, humiliating)
- coercive control (controlling access to finances, monitoring movements, isolating from friends and family).
Concerning behaviour includes anything that:
- makes you feel threatened, unsafe or uncomfortable
- makes you worried that someone may be harmed
- just doesn’t feel quite right.
What should I do if I feel unsafe?
Regardless of where or when it happened, if you experience or witness any of these types of behaviour 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.
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 do I contact Safer Community?
Safer Community is not an emergency or crisis response service. If you or someone else needs immediate help, please contact Victoria Police by calling Triple Zero (000) or Deakin Security on 1800 062 579.
You can contact Safer Community from Monday to Friday, 9am–4pm by:
- calling us on 03 9244 3734
- emailing us at [email protected]
- completing our online form.
Where can I find other information and help?
There’s a range of support services available, both at Deakin and in the community:
- If you need to talk to someone, contact Deakin’s Counselling and Psychological Support service.
- 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) provides information, counselling and support for people affected by family violence and sexual harm.
- Daisy App and Sunny App connect women and women with disability to local services.
- Are you safe at home? has information to help you think about your safety and find support.
- No to Violence (1300 766 491) provides family violence-related telephone counselling, information and referrals for men.
- Djirra (1800 105 303) provides support for Aboriginal people experiencing family violence.
- Thorn Harbour Health has a family violence service and details of other services specifically for the LGBTIQA+ community.
Remember: if your personal situation becomes dangerous or unsustainable, you can leave home to escape family violence at any time, regardless of any COVID-19 rules.