Bigger Than This (BTT) is an anti-racism program co-designed with young people to reduce the harm and impact of racism in Victorian schools. The initiative focuses on supporting young people recognising and responding to the physical and mental impact of racism and exercising their rights to report racism. BTT is a collaboration between CIDRN/Victoria University, VicHealth and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC). The program was created through the advice of a youth working group. Young people aged 15-25 were invited to join VicHealth and VEOHRC to deliberate on BTT’s design, development and delivery. As a result of the extensive collaborative stage, a 100 minute school-based program was developed and included the use of story posters, shared language cards and a creative activity for year 9 students. A call for schools to participate was circulated via the Department of Education and 70 expressions of interest were received, of which 10 schools were chosen to be a part of the pilot. Schools were chosen to represent a diversity of geographic location (regional and urban), school size, and ethnic/cultural diversity. The pilot program commenced at the end of 2023 and was completed in first term 2024.
The design and format of the program, which was informed and delivered by young people with lived experiences of racism, ignited purposeful conversations around the complexities of discrimination, racism and anti-racism. The sessions offered students a place to have candid conversations with each other and the facilitators in a non-judgemental setting. Importantly this also meant that for some students from cultural and ethnically diverse background, were able to give voice and expertise to their own experiences of racism and anti-racism during the sessions. Creative and collaborative approaches were highlighted as one of the program’s many strengths, as creative work in the program became vessels for expression that were fun and engaging for young people but also enabled students to co-create and share knowledge about racism and anti-racism in embodied, visual and dynamic ways.
The research and evaluation was led by Dr Sam Keast and Professor Christopher Sonn along with research assistants Dr Roshani Jayawardana and Angela Paredes Castro.