Our Story
Empowered Together is a not-for-profit run by young people for young people.
We are peer-led and volunteer run, working towards equiping young people with the skills, knowledge and confidence to understand consent and prevent sexual violence. Empowered Together was founded in 2015 by two young people studying law at Monash University, Melbourne. Rena Ou Yang and Ryan Ward felt frustrated when they were learning about consent for the first time as they took a third year criminal law class. Why as teenagers, were we not taught about consent in high school? Why were they denied an honest education on sex and relationships?
So they decided to do something about it!
Rena and Ryan explored other volunteer opportunities in the field to expand their knowledge, but something was missing. At the time, there were no organisations around that were providing peer-led consent education to high school students in Melbourne. So they began their research and started to expand their team to include more like-minded young people who wanted to see change in the education system to include holistic discussions around consent. From here, our Consent 101 Workshop was born and we were ready to dive into schools and start facilitating discussions about consent with young people.
Empowered Together’s workshops are the product of research and trialling. The activities were designed through five phases:
Consultation
Empowered Together’s workshop team began with consultations with local organisations already in the area of primary prevention to get an idea of how we could get started and what research had already been done. We also spoke with lawyers, teachers, peer educators and researchers in the sexual violence prevention space to better understand where gaps existed, and where our passion would best be directed.
Research and Observation
We began our research into literature surrounding sexual violence, root causes and primary prevention. This research provides our facilitators with a deep understanding into the issues and is the basis of all our activities. Additionally, our facilitators also sat in on primary prevention workshops that already run in schools such as the SECASA Respect, Protect and Connect Program.
Round Tables and Surveys
As an organisation, we aim to engage our communities and feed their input into our operations. Empowered Together ran round tables with schools, students, teachers, youth groups and other stakeholders to gauge their opinions on what they wanted to see in workshops. From this process, we were able to identify the gaps in other programs and refine our activities based on what students wanted. An online survey was also run and provided valuable feedback on what the community believed should be included in our workshops.
Pilot Workshops
We facilitated several pilot workshops with schools, stakeholders and students. This process involves our facilitators running a full workshop and then undertaking an evaluation process. From this, our workshops will be further refined into its final product. In 2019, our first ever paid workshop took place!
Workshop Development
Over the years, we conduct ongoing research to ensure that our workshops continue to stay relevant and useful for our audience. We will continue to seek feedback from stakeholders, including our student audience, experts in the field and our own volunteers. Empowered Together has now been growing and developing as an organisation for 7 years, forming relationships with schools and organisations across Melbourne and delivering vital consent education to young people
If you would like to find out more about how we deliver our workshops, get in touch with us via our Contact Us page.
PO Box 153, Northcote, VIC 3070
Empowered Together acknowledges and pays respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which we live and work.
Empowered Together is an ACNC registered charity.
ABN: 77611360361
