Common Ground: Future Fit Masculinities
St Bede’s College is proud to be at the forefront of student wellbeing with an innovative new program for students, Common Ground: Future Fit Masculinities.
Delivered with our partner, The Foundation For Positive Masculinity, this educational pilot program centres on understanding and preventing gender-based violence. Gender-based violence, especially against women, is a serious and widespread problem in Australia.
This program aims to understand the complex world our teens have to navigate and how gender stereotypes shape their experiences. We are privileged to be the only school in Victoria to participate in this program in 2025 and are pleased to continue with its success in 2026. Future Fit Masculinities will allow us to educate and encourage healthy and respectful relationships among school aged boys. Discover more about the program here at Common Ground.
The Parent Information Session for Common Ground is available here.
‘We believe in a whole community approach, working together with parents/guardians,
students (of all genders), and educators… our plan is to establish evidence-based activities
and programs that encourage healthy expressions of what it means to be a man today and
tackle social attitudes and behaviours that drive violence against women and children,
stopping gender-based violence before it starts’.
Dr Ray Swann, Executive Director
The Foundation for Positive Masculinity
Our students have thoroughly benefited from this program and share their feedback:
“It helped me to further refine my ability to create a safe environment for people to feel comfortable to speak within.”
“The ability to open up and as they made us feel comfortable, it was really easy to express ourselves. The acknowledgment and apology activity really brought a new perspective to me, as I saw how people viewed me due to the positive acknowledgments.”
“It removed self-doubt and made me realise that we are all good people deep down and all have emotions we don’t show, it helped me be more aware.”
Parent feedback shows the program has been equally valuable for them:
“Critically engaging with modern gender stereotypes to encourage young people to embrace kindness and openness.”
“Very informative and important information to help with the development of our boys.”
“Revolutionary, empowering and transformational.”
