Dedicated and Professional

  • I know one of my students was really taking in what you guys were talking about as he thought the program was brilliant. He came to me yesterday to change his VET from Bricklaying to Aged Care, when I asked him 'why the change?' He responded after last week I was thinking and I want to help people. It is your Program that might assist this boy break the 'cycle of poverty/welfare' that exists for him and many young people like him.

    - Kim Nicholls, Student Wellbeing, VCAL Coordinator

    ...my school, Bundoora Secondary College, had a workshop 'Be the Hero' with Paul. He talked to us about domestic violence and asked us different scenarios. one of those happened to be if we walked past a house and heard screaming and yelling what would you do? i'd say our whole year level said that they would leave it and keep walking. me and my friend were walking down a street only a day after the workshop and we heard banging, yelling etc.. we wouldn't of called the police if paul didn't give us the information that we had learnt, but we did and we think that this was a very helpful workshop/program and we just wanted to thank you for changing our perspective on what we should do in situations like this. And we would also like to give a big thank you to Paul for coming to our school :)

    - Students, Jamie and Shanae
  • Be the Hero Workshop was delivered to 170 students and 10 Staff at Epping Secondary College. The Workshop was informative, engaging and definitely hit the mark. It sent very clear messages about respectful relationships, violence being a choice, laws in relation to consent and how the bystander can make a difference when they see someone behaving inappropriately. It also highlighted the responsibilities the individual has in relation to shaping the culture of a school and the broader community. I highly recommend “Be the Hero program” and endorse future funding to enable these valuable messages to be delivered to schools. It is important for students from lower socio-economic areas to have access to these programs and not be excluded because of financial hardship. I am requesting for funding to continue for “Be the Hero Program” to enable all students to participate regardless of their background. I will be booking the Workshop for 2014 and beyond if the funding continues.

    - Leanne Halsall, Student Wellbeing Co-ordinator
  • I thought the Training session was very informative. Now I know exactly what the expectations are involved in the Respect Ambassador Program. It was a very relaxed environment which allowed for participants to feel relaxed and welcome.   I was very impressed with the ready made resources and manual! (Great job Rel!)   Overall a very informative day!!   Great work to the Nirodah team! 

    - Belinda Karlsson, Assistant Principal
  • Thank you so much for coming to Monterey on Monday!  I spoke with Anne and Tom (Frankston Youth Services) and they gave you a glowing report - I wasn't surprised and what they had to say met with my expectations.  I also asked one of the students who attended and he also had very good things to say about the session - again, I wasn't surprised but over joyed the student so easily expressed / reflected positively on your session.  Thanks again Paul. 

    - Mandy Rampton, Department of Education & Early Childhood Development, South Eastern Victoria Region
  • I just wanted to thank you again for the hard work that both yourself and Dan have put in over the past month in conducting the education sessions on Respectful Relationships in both Canberra and Darwin for our 17/U, 19/U & 21/U athletes. The anecdotal feedback that both Stacey and I have received from athletes and team management has been extremely positive and is testament to the great job that you both did in presenting what can be an extremely sensitive subject, in a positive way that really resonated with the audience.

    - Scott, Netball Australia
  • The “Be the Hero” unit is a program that was conceived and designed by the Victorian Women’s Trust. The program is for young men and is a violence prevention program which encourages young men to build respectful relationships with women and each other. It demonstrates that anyone can be the hero by choosing to live a life free of violence. This program was presented to our Year 10 Pathways boys on Monday afternoons and the sessions were headed by Mr Paul Zappa and his team consisting of Mr Dan Cocker and Ms Nicole Kahhan. We had five sessions in Term 1 and had two final sessions the first two Mondays of Term 2. During the two sessions in Term 2 the team was joined by Dr Christine Dew who is the Prevention Project Co-ordinator for the Good Samaritan Inn. The Good Samaritan Inn helped to sponsor Paul and his team.During these workshops a number of issues were discussed including; respectful relationships, the use of violence among young men and how to control emotions, gender matters discussing the relationships between men and women and what it means to be a man. The sessions were always hands-on for the boys as they did a lot of discussion and role playing as part of their learning.
    “I have learned about good and bad behaviour toward women and made me think about respecting the rights of others.”
    “During the “Be the Hero” Program I personally learned alot of new things and skills. It is important to help friends keep out of trouble and also learned how to show empathy towards others.”
    “We learned how to respect people but especially girls and keeping ourselves and friends out of trouble.”
    ”We learned about the different types of violence, physical, emotional, cyber, sexual and financial.“
    "I think the “Be the Hero” Program has made us a better bunch of boys and taught us to think twice before hurting any person’s feelings.”
  • Here are some of the comments made by the boys about the program.

    “I thought the program was interesting because some of the stats sounded unbelievable but we found out that they were really true.  I also learned that bullying is really serious and can cause people to hurt themselves and even death.  The clips you showed us about the masks we wear in different groups were also interesting.”  Steven Tasevski B-10

    “I learned a lot of new stuff I didn’t know, like physical violence isn’t the only kind of domestic violence.  You can damage someone with intimidation and using words and not fists.”  Adam DiBattista   L-10

    “I learned a number of things during the program, about how men use women to take out their anger because she is an easy target.  I also learned how over time words can really affect people perhaps even more that being punched in the face.  I feel this program helped me understand and expand my knowledge about abuse to women.”    Charlie Moran  T-10

    “I thought the program was interesting because I got so much out of it.  Some of the stats absolutely blew my mind and I also learned about places that women can go if they are in a difficult situation.   I find it horrible how men act when they are frustrated or intoxicated.”  Dylan Moulton T-10

    “I think the Be The Hero team did a good job and taught us about the realism of violence and the different characteristics of violence, so thanks for all your hard work.”  Nicholas Kalifatidis L-10

    “I would rate this program a 10/10 because it is a really cool program and taught us a lot about everyday life we didn’t know about.”  Joseph Mausio  T-10
  • Port Melbourne Primary School has been involved with NIRODAH for 4 years, and we are extremely pleased with the relationship that we have with our Nirodah psychologist and the excellent services that she provides to support our welfare team and our school community.

    NIRODAH's services are convenient, and easily accessible to our local families.     Their psychologist works collaboratively with our welfare team, the school leaders, and parents/guardians ensuring that there are positive outcomes for each child. The NIRODAH program ensures that students who would normally "fall through the cracks" and miss out on the DEECD provided school support services are able to obtain the necessary support and assistance to grow emotionally both in and out of the classroom.
  • I wanted to say thank you for having me to the Be the Hero Session at Salesian College on 22 May. It was great to see the program in action and to see how much it's developed.  The boys were a really good bunch and it was fascinating to see the way they moved from inward focused to outward focused and responsive over the time of the session.You and your colleagues clearly have the right touch with the boys and it was a pleasure to see how much was achieved in the time.Thanks again for welcoming me and letting me be part of the morning.

    - Nicky Friedman, Head of Pro Bono & Community Programs, Allens Law Firm

    My thoughts/reflections about your talks was nothing but positive.I think your message and the ideas you present forward are great and spot on.Most of the things you said was spot on to our year level, school, and me personally.It made me think of how my behaviours effect the women in my life and the issues that we face now and how that affects me down the track in life. It made me think about what I wanted in my future and the future of others. In a way it opened my eyes and made me think a bit deeper about the actions I do and things I say. You can put this on your brochure “the program is great and really questioned my chain of thoughts, Paul presented in a way that made sense and challenged me to improve myself and help others”Thanks heap for what you’ve done at my school, you’re great presenter.

    - Year 9 student

  • Thanks to NIRODAH my child has someone to confide in and assist her with her difficulties. My child is making progress and looks forward to her meetings. I would recommend this service to anyone who needs assistance. I only wish I had access to the NIRODAH service years ago.

    -Parent of Student
  • The team at NIRODAH presented an information session to schools who are lucky enough to be involved in the Respect Ambassador Program (RAP). I say lucky because I walked away from a day full of information and planning on how the program will take place at our school feeling energised, excited and inspired.

    The team at NIRODAH delivered the material in an informative and practical way with passion, enthusiasm and dedication. The significance and importance of promoting student wellbeing was evident as they spoke and delivered their information with such care and compassion towards the importance of ensuring all children are happy, healthy and feel safe. It was a fantastic day and we can’t wait to see the influence this team will have on our students at St Damian’s as it is evident they have already motivated the teachers!
  • THANKYOU for the great 2 days training you provided to us at the end of January. It has set a wonderful tone for the start of the year with some great conversations and collaboration already underway. I have overheard kitchen staff talking about ‘poking their animal brain’ and others saying that they hadn’t known how much they had learned until they were telling someone else about the 2 days. Thanks again and I look forward to furthering the great working relationship we have begun.

    - Sarah Mercer, Student Welfare Manager

    Thanks for your seminar with us. I truly believe this is something that all people, from all walks of life, should be informed of.Cheers again, you're truly doing a great thing for children & families. Changing the world.
  • I can’t speak highly enough of the impact Josh, Charnze and Dan had on the young people.

    Their interactions with the young people were invaluable and I am very grateful that you could arrange them to attend. They built and instant rapport with the young people and the Islander boys in particular enjoyed their company.

    The young people as well as the staff spoke glowingly of the presentation. The group enjoy your engaging approach and the real life scenarios you discuss. The Glenelg group have actually requested you pay them a visit down in Portland!

    - Mark De Campo, Community Engagement Coordinator