Seeing green: St John presence felt at 16 Days in WA rally
Alongside Police and thousands of attendees, St John WA Team Members marched against Domestic and Family Violence during WA’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence on Tuesday, November 25.
The rally and march held in Perth’s Forrest Chase brought together the families of victim-survivors, the community, dedicated specialist services, government representatives and a growing number of corporate supporters, to honour the lives of those killed due to Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) and show support to those who still live in constant fear in their own homes.
More than 40 St John representatives from all parts of the organisation attended in formal uniform and heard many women’s harrowing stories and watched a rose ceremony to honour the women and children, some as young as seven months, tragically killed as a result of family and domestic violence in 2025.
The team undertook a March of Silence to show support in a non-operational capacity, among them was Group CEO Kevin Brown in his Event Health Service (EHS) volunteer greens.
The 16 Days in WA campaign runs from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to 10 December (Human Rights Day) each year.
This year’s theme of Stopping Family and Domestic Violence: Play your part is about encouraging the Western Australian community to consider ways they can contribute to eliminating FDV through challenging violence-supportive and victim-blaming attitudes.
Kevin, alongside other men, sports heroes, advocates and Tame Impala singer Kevin Parker, have been named as “Agents of Change” for the campaign, tasked with spreading a message of respect for women.
“Violence against anyone in our community is unacceptable. Men and boys have a critical part to play in valuing and respecting women and girls, and our society as equal members of our society,” Kevin said.
“St John is at the frontline of FDV every day in the WA community, and we’re stepping forward to help keep families and the vulnerable safe having already trained about 2400 ambulance volunteers, paramedics and Triple Zero (000) call takers in how to identify and assist potential victim-survivors.
“Early data shows WA paramedics and volunteers are flagging an average of 6.8 suspected cases of FDV every day on top of the 4.7 cases identified by Triple Zero (000) call takers in our State Control Centre.
“Having the language, skills and data to assist in the fight against FDV is very powerful.”
EHS volunteers who attend events like sports games and concerts are among the final training phase in the rollout of the Australian-first program, which recently won an Excellence in Staff Development Award from the Council of Ambulance Authorities.
The Department of Communities funded the $2.1 million program — one of the largest of its kind rolled out by St John, which developed bespoke training in collaboration with Stopping Family Violence and research by the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Social Impact.