If you notice some funny looking yellow shapes popping up around town over the coming months, please take the time to stop and read the comments and consider the messages.
The silhouettes represent US ALL - individuals, families, all ages, all households.
They are all part of an earlier Choose Respect community project where schools, sporting and youth groups, senior citizens, government services, local business and the general public were invited to consider the thought bubble on each silhouette and add their own responses.
The thought bubbles where varied to fit the targeted group:
"How can we create a more respectful community for our kids to grow up in"
"What are the ways I can respect myself and my school"
"How can respect help my business thrive"
"How would my workplace be safer and more effective if everyone chose respect'"
"How would a night out be better if everyone respected themselves and others"
"Respect in my sport means..."
"How can respect help us all share the roads safely"
"How can respect help keep my kids safe"
These were some of the thoughts groups were invited to consider, but they are questions/thoughts that effect all of us and remind us that we all have the power and the responsibility to be a part of teaching, role modelling and growing respect community wide.
The silhouettes and the signage around town are all part of keeping the visual presence of Choose Respect in the forefront of our minds.
As we are bombarded daily with negative images and stories of violence and destructive behaviours, Choose Respect gives us the opposite.
It gives us all hope for a positive way forward and a tool to help us grow respect.
Those two words are so powerful - CHOOSE reminds us that we all have the power to choose our own actions, thoughts and words and RESPECT simply means to treat with care and consideration.
The more we can all try to make that choice to treat ourselves, others and our surroundings with care and consideration, the more we grow that culture of respect we are striving for.
Leanne Maher, Bunbury Choose Respect Coordinator
For more visit chooserespect.org.au.
