Melbourne Community Meeting

I am intending to host a meeting and workshop for the Melbourne Rope and BDSM community on Saturday 23rd June 2018.

Location and time to be finalised but it will be during the day for 3 hours.

All members of the Melbourne BDSM community are welcome to attend. However I am urging the people of the Melbourne rope community to be able to come and contribute. Many people in our rope community have been directly and indirectly been affected by recent events. I want this meeting and workshop to be a way forward for some healing.

Facilitating this meeting and workshop will be Sarah Ashton. Sarah Ashton has been practising as a kink-friendly psychologist for over 8 years. She provides psychological treatment for all things sex related and has worked with people who have committed sexual offences, people who have experienced and survived sexual assault, and people seeking satisfying sexual experiences. Sarah is researching women's experience pornography and is passionate about promoting public discussion around consent and pleasure in the digital age. Here is a link to her website http://www.sashton.com.au/

Here is a proposed outline for the meeting and workshop:

First hour: Presentation 

·      Statistics on the sexual assault 
·      Impact on victim/survivor - trauma response (and how this looks different for everyone)
·      Barriers to survivor/victim reporting (psychological, social and legal)
·      How and why does sexual assault occur?  (Including social camouflaging and ways in assault takes place)
·      Negotiating consent in a kink context - more than just safe words; consensual 'non-consent' 
·      How can a community support consenting, fun, safe, sexy, experiences?

Second hour:  Facilitated group discussion

·      Members of the community have the opportunity to discuss points made in the presentation and challenge each other in a supportive environment
·      Group activities to illustrate complexities of consent

Third hour: Facilitated community plan

·      Members of the community have the opportunity to raise issues, opinions and have their voice heard
·      Members of the community brainstorm a plan to promote consent practices within the community to: prevent sexual assault; plan how to respond to sexual assault to minimise harm; and any other topics they deem important. 

 For transparency I can state that Sarah Ashton’s quote is:

5 hours preparation x $165 per hour = $825
3 hours workshop weekend rate x $330 per hour = $990
Total cost = $1815

I envisage that the venue hire fee will be approximately $200.

This meeting and workshop will be still be going ahead even if I don’t raise all the money on GoFund Me as I will be paying for the shortfall.

I hope that people from the community can attend.