At the Wangaratta Marathon and Fun Run in March, hundreds of participants are expected to don t-shirts with the name of their local family and sexual violence service, Centre Against Violence, or “CAV”.
Team CAV started four years ago when CAV and the Wangaratta Rovers Football club partnered to make a joint statement against gender-based violence, but quickly grew from there.
“We had heaps of community people coming up and saying, ‘how do we join?’, How do we be part of your team?’ And it just clicked for us… and we opened it up for everyone,” Kelly Timms, CAV’s Communications and Community Partnerships Officer, told SASVic.
When participants register for the Wangaratta Marathon and Fun Run – and other community running events throughout the year – they can join Team CAV and order a shirt for free, thanks to the help of local community sponsors. In 2025, over 200 people of varying fitness levels joined the team, including local MP Helen Haines.
“When you get down there on the day, it’s just a swarm of people in our branding,” Kelly said.
“And more than about our branding, it’s about that message of solidarity and support.”
While some members of Team CAV are great runners who compete in the marathon, others are great “walkers and talkers,” and others cheer from the side lines.
Kelly said what mattered was making sure locals knew that CAV existed and that the service was there to support people.
“It’s… a really good way to get hold of families that might not necessarily be on social media or have an understanding of what we do and how we do it,” she said.
“We’re able to… put a friendly face to it so we don’t feel like an organisation that’s untouchable”.
Last year, Kelly had a conversation with an older woman who was crying at the starting line. The woman disclosed to Kelly that she had been abused when she was young and had felt so alone at the time. She did not know where to go or what to do, so did nothing.
“She was just so happy that people in this day and age can feel so supported and know where to go and that there’s help available and people are talking about it,” Kelly said.
“They’re the sort of comments we go back to. If one person reaches out for help because they’ve seen what we do or they’ve seen someone in a t-shirt somewhere and know how to contact us, then we’ve done something amazing.”
When asked what advice she would give to other services that might want to do something similar, Kelly said to leverage existing community support.
“There’s so many people out there that want to make a stand against violence,” she said, “but they don’t know what to do”.
“There’s so much red tape in having volunteers come in and help with the safety of clients… So this is one way that people can meaningfully help”.
The next Wangaratta Marathon and Fun Runs event will take place on Sunday 22 March.
Learn more about Team CAV here.