L to R: Veronica Sullivan, Manager of the Stella Prize; Aviva Tuffield, Executive Director of the Stella Prize; The Hon. Fiona Richardson MP, Victorian Minister for Women; Caroline Ryan, Chair of the Stella Prize Board; Sophie Allan, Assistant Manager of the Stella Prize; Bec Kavanagh, Stella Prize Schools Coordinator
This morning at Victorian Parliament House, the Hon. Fiona Richardson MP, Minister for Women, and Stella Schools Ambassador Catherine Andrews, celebrated International Women’s Day with the announcement that the Victorian Government has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Stella Prize Schools Program.
The following is an excerpt from the press release:
“Award-winning authors will spend a week in Victorian schools under a pilot to help teach girls and boys to recognise gender stereotypes in the books they read.
The intensive writers camps, which will cost schools nothing and is aimed at years seven to 10, will begin this year under a $50,000 grant by the Victorian Government. The literature workshops will held at about six regional and disadvantaged schools and be run by the prestigious Australian women’s literary award, the Stella Prize, as part of its schools program.
The program – ‘Stella Writing Camp: Towards Gender Equality through Literature’ – wants students to read more critically and imagine a future not limited by their gender. The grant will also expand the ‘Girls Write Up’ workshops that encourage teenagers to find their own voice and find the confidence to share their own stories.
The Government is encouraging secondary schools to include more female authors on their reading lists.”