The DanceWize Staff:
There have been multiple changes to staff this year as ongoing funding an
d resourcing issues continue to impact one of our most popular programs. Bee Hayes the DanceWize Coordinator, transferred to the PAMS team with Nick Wallis taking over as DW program coordinator. Alexand Anketell remained as program officer and Liam Troon was engaged casually throughout the festival season as a Program Support Officer.
Gender Based Violence (GBV) Service:
Mae Vincent was engaged for ~1 day per week as the GBV Service Manager, which works directly alongside the DanceWize service at events.
Casual Positions:
Tate Bourke and Jackson McLean were occasionally engaged as casual project officers for specific events.
24 (^32%) Events Serviced during 2022-2023\
10 of which were multi day events (2-6 days on site)
Over a total of 67 days
*Unfortunately, 30% of Booking Enquiries are necessarily DECLINED due to a lack of harm reduction resourcing/funding & a mix of cancelled festivals, or bookings cancelled by the event contact.
DanceWize Event Care Service Provision:
The DanceWize team provided service at 24 events during the 2022-23 period,
10 of which were multiple-day events around regional Victoria.
A 32% increase on the previous FY.
DanceWize operated two or more simultaneous Peer Care Services
in 6 instances during that period.
Peers Cared For At Events:
DW KPEs cared for a total of
558 Persons In Care (PIC).
Labor Day weekend (March 10-13 2023) was our busiest weekend.
This weekend DW had three simultaneous deployments:
to Esoteric Festival 4 days open,
approx 7K Attendees @Donald VIC
(275km /3hr17min drive)
to Pitch Music & Arts 4 days open,
approx 15K attendees @Moyston VIC (218km/ 2hr51min)
and to Karnival single day
20k Attendees @ Flemmington RC, Melbourne
Largest number of Person(s) In Care (PIC) per event:
1. Pitch @ 187 PIC
2. Esoteric @ 112 PIC
Our longest average duration of care:
1. The Town - 2x 6+ hour care periods of PIC
2. Esoteric festival.
“We provided peer-based AOD harm reduction education, basic supplies such as water, sunscreen, band aids, sanitary products and electrolytes to approximately 7.6k patrons and more intensive personal support and 1-on-1 care was provided for over 550 people who use drugs at music festivals every year, creating a safer, non-judgmental environment that respects people and helps alleviate pressure on medical services, ambulance & hospitals”
Key Peer Educators:
During the 2022-23 season, the DanceWize team inducted 68 new team members and conducted our suite of training sessions during fortnightly meetings.
We currently offer 19 different training modules & proficiencies to our KPEs.
The 2022-23 festival season had some major challenges and subsequent changes.
It was our first full festival season post-pandemic, and volunteer retention was a high priority, having lost many experienced team members and having lower engagement overall. Internal change-overs during November of 2022 combined with this new intake training schedule and updated training topics led to some event inquiries being declined due to unclear resourcing availability.
Challenges and lessons over this festival season were all collected and lessons enacted or plans built for future change.
The New Office, Meeting/Training Spaces & DW Storage Area:
HRVic also moved offices during this time, providing an opportunity for DanceWize to clear and consolidate our kit and inventory ; from the previous 2x off site storage units and off site meeting rooms, to build a new storage area (and laundry!) as well as finally having on sight training/workshop and meeting spaces that will fit all our enthusiastic DW KPEs- at the new Brunswick offices.
Though there were many challenges that took away from time to progress with program-specific updates and upgrades, those tapered off as the 22-23 season went on, and some things were able to be implemented, such as new administrative recording and reporting systems and fixes to the ways that data capture occurs within the program.
I expect the 2023-24 festival season will be a much more settled one, where some of the changes and updates can be fully tested and implemented, and some of the bigger plans can begin to take their solid, smaller steps.
