Logo for Empowered, featuring the word 'Empowerment' with a diamond shape between 'Power' and 'Ed', and the tagline 'empowering authentic, connected, empathetic people' beneath on a blue background.

Respectful Relationship Programs for Schools

Empowering Healthy, Respectful Relationships

Programs for Middle and Senior School Students

Enquire about a respectful relationships program for your school

Empowering Relationships is a respectful relationships program for middle and senior school students in Australian secondary schools.

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. The program is tailored to each school’s context and can be integrated into existing wellbeing and pastoral care frameworks

Empowerment-Ed’s healthy, respectful relationship programs have 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 provide a space for young people to authentically connect and build pro-social skills

How we do this:

  • Cohort-specific, age-specific presentations and content

  • Rather than lecturing, we ask questions and invite collaboration to get young people thinking and reflecting on the person they are

  • We work through real-life scenarios to engage critical thinking

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

Respectful Relationships Programs we offer:

Enquire about a respectful relationships program for your school

  • Me & My World is an engaging, age‑appropriate workshop designed to help upper‑primary students understand what healthy friendships look and feel like.

    Through storytelling, real‑life scenarios, and hands‑on activities, students explore respect, empathy, boundaries, and how to navigate tricky social moments with confidence.

    We create a safe, supportive space where students can:

    • Reflect on what makes a good friend

    • Practise pro‑social skills like listening, including others, and managing conflict

    • Learn how to respond to unkind behaviour

    • Build awareness of their own feelings and how these impact others

    Me & My World equips young people in upper primary years with practical tools to connect kindly, communicate clearly, and contribute positively to their classroom community.

    It’s a foundational step in helping students grow into respectful, emotionally aware young people.

  • This interactive workshop is part of Empowerment-Ed’s leading respectful relationship school program, tailored specifically for Year 7 students. It introduces the foundations of friendship, respect, and boundaries, with a strong emphasis on understanding the other person’s perspective; a key skill in building healthy relationships.

    What Students Will Explore
    Led by Ben Russell, students will:

    • Navigate the realities of technology and online interaction

    • Learn how to respond to unwanted content and digital pressure

    • Understand the difference between playful banter and harmful comments

    • Explore respectful ways to connect with peers of all genders

    Optional Social Activities
    Schools can opt to include age-specific social experiences where students apply their learning in a safe, supported environment. These informal activities help reinforce respectful relationship skills through real-time interaction.

    ✅ Why It Matters
    Students leave with practical tools to foster respectful relationships, not just in the classroom, but in their digital lives and social circles. This workshop lays the groundwork for emotional intelligence, empathy, and safe connection.

  • 📱 Respectful relationships and consent in an online world:

    In a world of filters, followers, and false perfection, how do young people build authentic connections? This workshop, part of Empowerment-Ed’s leading respectful relationship school program, helps students unpack the pressures of social media and explore what it means to form healthy, respectful relationships in today’s digital age.

    What Students Will Explore
    Led by Ben Russell, students will:

    • Examine misguided gender norms

    • Reflect on the pressure to be “perfect” online and offline

    • Debunk myths around pornography and explore the realities of consent

    • Learn how respectful relationships can thrive in modern, tech-driven contexts

    Real Talk, Real Growth
    This workshop is designed for both boys and girls, offering a safe space to critically reflect on identity, connection, and emotional wellbeing. It’s imbedded with real-life scenarios and delivered in a way that’s engaging, age-appropriate, and culturally relevant.

    Optional Social Activities
    Schools can choose to include informal, age-specific social experiences where students apply their learning in a safe, supported environment, reinforcing respectful relationship skills through real-time interaction.

    ✅ Why It Matters
    Students leave with a stronger understanding of how to foster respectful relationships: online, in person, and within themselves. It’s a vital step toward emotional intelligence, empathy, and safe connection.

  • Beyond Eggplants and Peaches: Understanding Boundaries, Consent, and Respectful Relationships

    In a world where emojis often replace real conversation, how can young people truly understand boundaries, consent, and respectful relationships?

    This workshop, part of Empowerment-Ed’s leading respectful relationship school program, helps students unpack the impact of simplified communication and social media stereotypes on intimacy and connection.

    What Students Will Explore
    Led by Ben Russell, students will:

    • Examine how social media distorts expectations in intimate relationships

    • Understand how objectification undermines authentic connection

    • Explore the realities of consent - both online and in person

    • Reflect on how technology can support or sabotage respectful relationships

    Real Talk, Real Reflection
    This session is designed for students navigating adolescence and early adulthood. It offers a safe space to critically reflect on identity, intimacy, and emotional wellbeing in a tech-driven world.

    Optional Social Activities
    Schools can choose to include informal, age-specific social experiences where students apply their learning in a safe, supported environment, reinforcing respectful relationship skills through real-time interaction.

    ✅ Why It Matters
    Students leave with a deeper understanding of how to foster respectful relationships in digital and real-life contexts. It’s a vital step toward emotional intelligence, empathy, and safe connection.

  • Available upon request. We offer a bespoke program that is tailored to the prior learnings of each schools context, ensuring a relatable, engaging experience for students

  • The Authentic Man

    In a world where boys are being told continuously what not to do, an alternative of what to strive for must be presented. Instead of being alienated, boys must be engaged on what it means to be an authentic man in modern society.

    ​In this workshop, Ben works through the damaging narrative traditional forms of masculinity have done to both men and women alike. Audiences are given guidance on how to offset the current social description of masculinity, where men are depicted as aggressive, violent, unemotional and non-nurturing. More importantly, participants are then offered a road map forward of what positive masculinity looks like, how everyone benefits from this approach and how to apply these new learnings to the gifts and talents each individual possesses. Participants will have the opportunity to workshop through a variety of age-appropriate scenarios to develop critical analysis skills to promote healthy masculinity in modern settings.

  • Parenting in the age of social media: what parents need to know and how they can support their child to become kind, compassionate, resilient individuals.

    In this keynote, Ben will unpack with parents the 'age and stage' of where their child is in terms of social development and relationships. Parents will be highlighted key warning signs that they must be across, while being provided with user-friendly, proactive, high impact strategies to best support their child as they journey through adolescence. An opportunity for Q&A to provide real-time feedback to parents is also available.

    Note: this keynote is recommended to complement a school run information evening.

Large indoor auditorium filled with students sitting in chairs, facing a stage with two large screens showing a presentation, and colorful banners hanging above.
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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.
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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

  • Exceptional presentation by Ben Russell to our Year 8 students from Villanova College and Loreto College Coorparoo this afternoon and evening. Ben delved into critical subjects like respectful relationships, trust-building, and the dangers of toxic social media trends. His insights on the distorted perceptions created by social media and associated industries highlighted the need for realistic expectations. This session was not just informative but vital, instiling in our students an appreciation for themselves and fostering healthy relationships. Ben and his team facilitated a safe environment for our students to be open with each other and learn from each others individual perspectives. These lessons will undoubtedly shape their future interactions and empower them to create nurturing connections. Thank you, Ben and the team, for equipping our students with essential life skills!

    Head of Year 8 - Villanova 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

  • Empowering Relationships is a values-driven respectful relationship school program designed to help students build empathy, boundaries, and emotional intelligence. It equips young people with the tools to foster healthy relationships; grounded in respect, self-awareness, and connection.

  • Empowering Relationships is tailored for middle and senior school students, with content adapted to suit each school’s and cohort context.

    It’s both effective for single sex schools seeking to deepen their understanding of respectful relationships and emotional wellbeing in partnership (often done with another single-sex school), or within one co-ed school focusing on the role of healthy relationships within a cohort.

  • Unlike generic curriculum add-ons, Empowerment-Ed’s approach is immersive, relational, and culturally responsive. The program blends evidence-based practices with engaging delivery, making it one of the most impactful and relevant respectful relationship school programs available.

    The programs rigor has also been affirmed through the endorsement and approval of the Australian Council for Education Research Wellbeing Guide.

  • The program addresses many forms of masculinity by creating safe spaces for boys to reflect on identity, vulnerability, and strength.

    Through storytelling, discussion, and hands-on activities, students are invited to challenge harmful stereotypes and redefine their own version of a healthy masculinity that is authentic to themselves and the type of person they wish to be.

  • Absolutely. The program is designed to complement existing wellbeing, pastoral care, or student formation initiatives. It can be delivered as a standalone experience, a series of workshops, or embedded into broader school programs through our curriculum package here: www.empowerment-ed.com.au/empoweringwellbeing.

  • Empowering Relationships is designed with today’s students in mind. From navigating social media pressures to understanding consent and boundaries, the program speaks directly to the realities young people face. Through age-specific workshops, real-life scenarios, and interactive activities, students are invited to reflect, connect, and grow in a way that feels relevant and engaging.

    More than simply a lecture, we create an environment for conversation. Students are given space to explore their own experiences and perspectives, making the learning personal and impactful.

  • Empowerment-Ed’s approach is grounded in experiential learning, relational pedagogy, and celebrates student voice. Workshops are interactive, discussion-based, and tailored to each school’s context. Whether it’s through storytelling, group challenges, or guided reflection, students are actively involved; not passively receiving information.

    The program also includes optional social activities that allow students to practice respectful relationship skills in a safe, supported environment.

  • All sessions are facilitated by Ben Russell, Director of Empowerment-Ed. With over 15 years of experience in school leadership roles, including pastoral care, student engagement, and formation. Ben brings deep insight and authenticity to every workshop. He’s worked with thousands of students across Australia and presented at national conferences on respectful relationships.

  • We cater to all Australian Schools. No matter your location, we will come to you. We make any location work:

    • Queensland (Brisbane and regions)

    • New South Wales (Sydney and regions)

    • Victoria (Melbourne and regions)

    • South Australia (Adelaide and regions)

    • Australian Capital Territory (Canberra and regions)

    • Western Australia (Perth and regions)

    • Northern Territory (Darwin and regions)

Contact us.

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