Health & wellbeing programs

About the groups

Sunrise Social Groups are groups for women, gender diverse people and/or nonbinary folk, who have a disability, chronic health issues and/or mental health challenges.

The groups support participants to:

• Build friendships and a support network.
• Get information about staying healthy and build their confidence.
• Find out about local services and connect to their community.

What we do

Face to Face Meetings:

GenWest supports three different groups to get together for a couple of hours

once a fortnight at a disability accessible venue in three local government areas:

• Brimbank – held in Sunshine every second Monday (10:30am-1.00pm)
• Wyndham – held in Tarneit every second Wednesday (12:30-3:00pm)
• Melton – held in Melton every second Tuesday (10:30am-1.00pm)

We plan what we want to do together.

We like to do social things, like:

• Having a BBQ in the park
• Visiting the Zoo
• Beauty therapy & massage
• Arts and crafts

We often have guest presenters that speak to us about things like:

• Health and well-being
• Managing anxiety and depression
• Building healthy relationships
• Safety at home and in the community
• Services in the community.

Online Meetings:

We also meet fortnightly (every second Monday) through Zoom with all Sunrise group members across Melbourne’s West. We connect with one another online and share information, learn new skills from each other and link up with services across local areas. If you are new to using computers, we can support you to learn how to use computers, iPads/tablets and a mobile phone, so you can participate in Zoom meetings and more.

Join us

It’s free to join for people who are over 18, live in the west of Melbourne and are not a NDIS participant. Morning or afternoon tea is provided and most of our activities are free too! Sessions will be hosted in English however all cultures are welcome.

If you are interested in joining but feel unsure, how about trying us out? The facilitators are Fofi & Beth who are happy to talk to you on the phone or meet with you.

If it is hard for you to get around, we can help you work out what support you might need. You can bring a friend if this would help.

How to get involved

For more information, questions or to sign up, contact Beth or Fofi at GenWest on:

Phone: 1800 436 937 or 0407 061 702

Email: sunrise@genwest.org.au

*GenWest warmly welcomes women, trans, gender diverse people and/or non-binary folks who are comfortable in a space that centres the experiences of women. We believe individuals have the right to express and identify their gender however they choose.

Download the Sunrise poster and brochure below.

About the health education sessions

The health educator team at GenWest offer free health education sessions in Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, Vietnamese or Easy English to multicultural women in Melbourne’s west.

Topics include healthy relationships and safe homes, physical and mental wellbeing and sexual and reproductive health.

The GenWest health educator team researched and consulted on community needs before delivering health education sessions based on the needs of the communities. These sessions aim to be relevant, effective, empowering and respectful.

How to access multilingual health education

If you would like to arrange a session for your organisation or group, please contact our health educators:

• Deepmala (Nepali, Hindi and Easy English): deepmalaa@genwest.org.au
• Nilaufer (Hindi, Urdu and Easy English): nilaufers@genwest.org.au

You can choose your topic, language, date and time.

The sessions are delivered by trained women from your community. We can work with a translator to deliver sessions in your language.

The sessions are held online, and can be held face to face when COVID-19 restrictions allow.

Flood recovery program

The flood recovery program supports refugee and migrant women and their families who were affected by the 2022 floods in Maribyrnong. It does this by:

• bringing together displaced community members
• giving people and opportunity to share their stories and resilience
• supporting people to access services that support their recovery

FARREP is a state-wide program that works with communities to prevent female genital cutting (FGC).

The program aims to increase access to timely, culturally appropriate sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls who have experienced the practice.

GenWest has two FARREP workers. One focuses on community education and the other on professional development and education for health professionals.

The FARREP workers support women and girls from diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds who have migrated from countries where FGC is traditionally practiced.

What does the program do?

We work with communities that traditionally practice FGC to:

• Increase women’s access to health services
• Build the capacity of health professionals to work with the women and girls at risk of FGC in culturally appropriate ways
• Support changes in attitude towards the practice of FGC and prevent it from occurring by strengthening knowledge and providing appropriate resources

Community education programs

The FARREP community education programs are not running in a face-to-face format at present, but we hope to run these again soon.

Professional development

FARREP provides professional development training for health professionals, as well as other organisations and individuals upon request.

Training focuses on the social and cultural aspects of FGC, to improve how services support women and girls from countries where FGC has been traditionally practiced.

If you would like to hear further information about our training please give us a call or contact shukria@genwest.org.au.

Read more about our FARRAP professional development training and request a training session.

The Take Up Space project was designed to reach young people during COVID-19 restrictions.

It sought to improve the mental health and social connections of young people in the west and increase access to support services and resources.

The project was led by two young women with lived experience, and the content of the project was developed following extensive consultation with community members and organisations across the west.

We ensured that young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds had a clear voice and role in shaping every stage of what became known as the Take Up Space project.

The project resulted in the Take Up Space website, which hosts a three-part web series and a resource hub for free or low-cost mental and sexual health support services.

Watch the amazing videos and access resources at takeupspace.org.au.

GenWest is the lead agency for the prevention of family violence in the western metropolitan region of Melbourne.

Is it possible to prevent family violence?

Research from VicHealth and the World Health Organization shows that gendered violence can be prevented: it’s a matter of changing the unequal power balance and cultural norms that cause men to perpetrate violence in the first place, and the social structures that excuse it.

What is GenWest doing to prevent family violence?

We lead the Preventing Violence Together partnership. This partnership works to implement actions in the strategy: Preventing Violence Together 2030: The Western Region Strategy to Prevent Violence Against Women.

We run training and capacity building programs that strengthen the prevention work undertaken by other agencies – such as community groups, health agencies, state and local government and other key organisations in Melbourne’s west (including Victoria University and the Western Bulldogs).

Visit our training section to find out more about requesting training on the prevention of family violence in your organisation.

Read more about the work of the Preventing Violence Together partnership.

What we do

Our team at GenWest deliver sexual and reproductive health education to communities across Melbourne’s West.

Our workshops provide a comprehensive understanding of human sexuality, covering topics ranging from contraception and pregnancy options, to consent and healthy relationships. They are strengths-based and give young people the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions about their lives and their bodies.

We also provide training to professionals working with young people, and offer guidance to parents/caregivers on how to approach topics and support the young people in their lives around sexual and reproductive health.

The workshops support young people, their parents/caregivers, and professionals to understand:

• Boundaries
• Consent
• What healthy relationships look like
• Limiting gender stereotypes
• The law and their rights
• Online safety
• How to advocate for themselves

We are informed by the knowledge that nuanced, evidence-based and sex-positive sex and relationship education:

• Leads to safer and more consensual sex
• Has a significant positive effect on sexual health across all life stages
• Is vital to our overall wellbeing and quality of life.

We view our work through a gendered and intersectional lens. Sexual and reproductive health is a human right, and comprehensive SRH education and access plays a vital role in increasing gender equity and decreasing gender-based violence.

Our work aligns with Victoria’s mandatory consent education and respectful relationships curriculum, while also working to address key gaps in knowledge about sexuality, pleasure, communicating with partners, porn and sexting.

We also partner with organisations and community members with lived experience to share expertise and ensure our workshops are inclusive and accessible.

Our work

We work with diverse young people and communities in a variety of settings.
Through educating young people and communities around sex and relationships, we aim to create a safer, healthier and more equitable society.

Culturally safe education

Our Human Relations Program, which we facilitate at the Western English Language School (WELS), is unique in providing sexuality and relationship education to newly arrived young people from diverse cultural backgrounds. The program is delivered in-language in a way that is accessible, culturally safe and tailored to their needs. Sexual health and gender equity experts who work with migrant communities facilitate workshops with students. Interpreters also support students to engage with the content and their peers in their own language.

Sexuality, consent and the law

Our sexuality, consent and the law workshops aim to empower young people to understand their rights, and make choices informed by understanding consent and respectful relationships. We’ve partnered with legal experts to develop these workshops which combines a legal framework with sex-positive principles. We’ve delivered these sessions to young people in a variety of settings, including non-mainstream educational settings such as out-of-home care.

How to book

We provide consultation and the delivery of educational programs across a wide range of settings. To discuss further, please fill in the form below to set up a meeting. We will have an initial meeting to discuss your needs and priorities and our education sessions will be tailored from there!

Fill in our request form and provide some information about your workshop or event. One of our team members will then get in touch with you!

Sexual and Reproductive Health Facilitation Request Form