Respectful Relationships Programs for Schools

Consent, online safety and healthy relationships, tailored to your school's context and built into your existing wellbeing and pastoral care programs.

Enquire about a program
See the programs ↓

· eSAFETY Trusted Provider ·‍ ‍Years 5 to 12 · Delivered across Australia · Cohort & age-specific

The Snapshot

Empowering Relationships is a respectful relationships program for middle and senior school students in Australian secondary schools. It helps young people build empathy, boundaries, consent awareness, and emotional intelligence through interactive workshops, real-life scenarios, and optional social activities. All Empowering Relationship programs are endorsed by the Office of eSafety as a Trusted Provider.

HOW WE DO THIS

  • Cohort-specific, age-specific presentations and content

  • Rather than lecturing, we ask questions and invite collaboration

  • We create an environment where young people can practice engaging with new people in a safe, supported way

OUR TWO CLEAR HOPES

  1. To upskill young people on how to get it right in relationships: online, in-person, boundaries, consent, empathy, communication.

  2. To build a school culture where respect and connection are the norm, not the exception.

Programs we offer

  • The friendship foundations (Years 5–6)

    Before "relationships" means dating, it means friendship; and that's where respect is first learned. Through storytelling, real scenarios and hands-on activities, upper-primary students discover what a good friend actually does: listening, including others, handling conflict, and responding to unkindness. They leave more aware of their own feelings and how those feelings impacts others, the foundation everything later extends on.

  • Connected, Healthy Relationships: First friendships in a newly connected world

    Year 7 is the year everything gets bigger. Students are often in a new school, with new group chats, and new social rules. Students learn to see a situation from the other person's side, tell the difference between banter and harm, handle digital pressure and unwanted content, and connect respectfully with peers of every gender. Practical tools for the exact moment they're stepping into.

  • Authentic connection in a curated world

    In a world of filters, followers and false perfection, how do teenagers develop something real? Students unpack the pressure to look "perfect," challenge misguided gender norms, and separate the myths around pornography from the realities of consent; working out what respect looks like both online and face to face. Designed for boys and girls together, centered in real-life scenarios.

  • Consent, boundaries and grown-up respect

    When emojis replace conversation, how do young adults actually understand consent? Students examine how social media distorts expectations of intimacy, how objectification quietly erodes real connection, and what consent genuinely means, both online and in person.

    A frank, age-appropriate space to think it through as they move toward adulthood.

  • Built around what your students already know

    A senior session shouldn't repeat Year 10, we would rather build on it. We shape a bespoke workshop around your cohort's prior learning and your school's context, so it lands as relevant and real, rather than a rerun. Scoped with you before delivery. Just ask us what you need, we handle the rest.

  • A positive roadmap for boys and young men

    Boys hear a lot about what not to do. This gives them something to strive for. Ben works through the damage that narrow ideas of masculinity do to men and women alike, then offers a positive alternative: what a good man actually looks like, why everyone benefits, and how each boy can apply it to his own strengths and talents. Real, age-appropriate scenarios build the critical-thinking skills to carry it well beyond the room.

  • Parenting through social media and adolescence

    The skills students build at school stick best when parents are in the loop. Ben helps parents understand the 'age and stage' of their child's social development, the warning signs worth watching for, and practical, high-impact ways to support them through adolescence; with live Q&A to finish.

    Best paired with a school information evening, or after a student program that day.

Find out more about our healthy masculinity workshops here:

Healthy Masculinities Workshops
Large indoor auditorium filled with students sitting in chairs, facing a stage with two large screens showing a presentation, and colorful banners hanging above.
A group of students sitting on the floor in a large, modern conference hall listening to a presentation. A man stands on the stage speaking into a microphone, with two large screens behind him displaying a slide titled "Leadership?" and some text.
A classroom or auditorium filled with students in blue shirts attending a presentation about respectful relationships, with a speaker standing at the front pointing to a slide projected on the wall.
Audience seated in a theater watching a presentation with a large screen displaying text.
A man giving a presentation or lecture to a group of students in a classroom or seminar room. The man is standing near a wall with a projected slide. The students are sitting at tables and appear to be listening attentively.
A large indoor hall filled with students in school uniforms sitting in chairs, some engaging in conversations, with a few standing or walking. The room has brick walls, large windows with blue curtains, and a wooden floor. There is a podium with a mi
A man giving a presentation to a large group of students in a modern indoor space with glass walls and seating areas.
Students seated at tables in a gymnasium, with a presenter at the front. The gym has a high ceiling, windows, and banners hanging on the walls.

Testimonials

  • This is the second year we’ve welcomed Ben Russell from Empowerment-Ed to lead this session, and once again, he brought warmth, insight, and authenticity to this important conversation. His ability to create a safe space for young people to reflect, share, and challenge their thinking is something special.

    Luke - Head of Middle Years - Padua College

  • Thanks so much for the presentation Ben. Very valuable message to our students presented in a way that kept them engaged the whole time.

    Chris - Dean of Waterford - Gregory Terrace

  • Proud to see this work continuing through our Luminare Wellbeing Program at Sheldon College. Welcoming Ben Russell from Empowerment‑Ed to work with our Year 10 and Year 11 students was another small but important step in strengthening the wellbeing architecture of the College. His work sits seamlessly alongside our Pastoral Care Model and broader wellbeing framework, where the focus is not only on responding when things go wrong, but on equipping students with the skills to navigate relationships, make good decisions and understand their responsibility to themselves and others. The respectful relationships education Ben delivered gave our students the chance to explore empathy, boundaries, consent, communication and emotional intelligence in a way that was age‑appropriate, practical and grounded in real-life situations.

    Alex Sullivan - Director of Wellbeing - Sheldon College

  • I just wanted to reach out and thank you again for your presentation - it was very engaging and informative. The concepts you spoke about were relevant and well-explained for their age, and something that really needs to be explicitly taught, regardless of background or privilege. It was great to be able to reference back to the scenarios and examples you gave in our Year Level assembly today..

    Head of Year 7 - Downlands College

  • Thank you Ben for supporting both schools’ (Brisbane Boys and Girls Grammar Schools) endeavours to raise respectful young people.

    Headmaster - Brisbane Grammar School

  • Thank you for the informative sessions you conducted with our Year 10 HPE students. The program was well received by our students. What impressed me the was your ability to engage and connect with the students and create a safe space for them to share their thoughts and experiences. Feedback from our staff in attendance was very positive. We look forward to working with you again next year.

    Tim P - Head of HPE - St Thomas More College

Respectful Relationships Program FAQs

  • A respectful relationships program for students in Years 5 to 12, delivered in your school. Through interactive, scenario-based workshops, students build empathy, boundaries, consent awareness and emotional intelligence, and it's endorsed by the Office of eSafety as a Trusted Provider.

  • Years 5 to 12, with content tailored to each stage: from friendship foundations in upper primary to consent and boundaries in the senior years. It works in co-ed settings and for single-sex schools partnering together, or as a standalone adjustment for single-sex schools on their own.

  • It's built around conversation, not worksheets. Sessions are age-specific, discussion-based and tailored to your school's context rather than dropped in as a generic module. The approach is recognised in the ACER Student Wellbeing guide and endorsed by the Office of eSafety: so it's credible with your community, not just engaging for students.

  • Yes. Our Healthy Masculinity workshops give boys a positive, honest space to explore identity, strength and vulnerability, and to challenge the stereotypes that don't serve them or the people around them.

  • Absolutely. it's designed to complement, not compete with, your wellbeing, pastoral care or student formation framework. We shape delivery to build on what your students have already covered.

  • Yes. Consent, boundaries and the pressures of the online world run through every age level, handled with age-appropriate, real-life scenarios rather than lectures.

  • Interactive and discussion-based. Ben asks questions and invites students to think and contribute rather than lecturing, and schools can add optional social activities where students practise the skills in real time. Typical sessions range from 90 minutes to full day experiences.

  • Every session is facilitated by Ben Russell, Director of Empowerment-Ed, who brings 15+ years of school leadership experience, is a fully registered teacher, holds a Masters in Education - Leadership, and has designed every program himself - no script being followed here.

  • Right across Australia: every state and territory. We're based in Brisbane, Queensland. No matter where you are, we will come to you.

Contact us.

For bookings and enquiries, please fill out the form: