Brisbane Roar defender Summer O’Brien is encouraging the football community to get behind the Orange The World campaign by helping to end violence against women and girls.
As part of her work for the Brisbane Domestic Violence Service (BDVS), O’Brien is involved in the worldwide push for 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
The campaign runs from November 25 to December 10 and O’Brien, who was joined at the BDVS offices by her Roar teammates on Wednesday, says it’s rewarding to be involved in driving important change.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to work in a domestic violence agency because I’m extremely passionate about bringing about change for women in Australia, women and girls and families,” O’Brien explained.
“It’s such a great service and the people who work in the service are massive advocates for the change.
“The challenges are probably mostly the systemic barriers that women are faced with, particularly the complexities involved in domestic and family violence.
“But the rewards are that you get to work alongside incredibly resilient and strong women every single day, and hopefully work to bring around change.”
O’Brien, currently playing in her third Westfield W-League season, also shared a couple of simple ways community members can help make a difference.
“You can share our photos that we’ve had taken today, that would be great, and make sure you include the hashtags #OrangeTheWorld and #16DaysOfActivism,” she said.
“And over the 16 days, if you could just try and raise awareness as much as possible on social media around domestic violence and family violence against women, that would be great.”
And with the backing of her teammates on the pitch, O’Brien was heartened to know she had their support for her work away from football.
“It was incredible. I wasn’t expecting the support that the girls showed, but it’s just great to know that they’re out there happy to try and support women and girls, and be advocates for change,” she said.
