Violence Free Families District Exchange

The  district exchange

The Rotary year 2014/15  was the final year of the very successful ongoing Group Study Exchange in the format of four team members from each country exchanging and gaining new knowledge and experience in their particular profession for a week period. That year was such a successful exchange (both ways) between District 6840 in Louisiana/Mississipi, USA and District 9800 in Victoria, Australia, that the teams agreed to a three year exchange in a particular field to commemorate their successful mutual exchange in a professional area of importance to both teams.

That area of importance was unanimously identified as Family Violence, a significant growing concern in both countries. 

In the first exchange, Marie Claire Landry form the New Orleans Justice Center came to Victoria, and Superintendent Matthew Ryan visited Louisiana/Mississipi.

You can watch a video recording of a speech by Matthew explaining how he used the exchange to further his knowledge and develop his thinking at this link. And you can read a Transcript of his talk here.

Last year, Janine Mahoney, a specialist in this field, was selected to represent Victoria.

At this link you can watch a recorded interview in which she describes the benefits of the exchange. A full Transcript will be available shortly.