Stop It Before It Starts!
Your creative brief
This page is your stimulus. Read it, let it sink in, then create something that shows us how to stop violence before it happens.
THE MODEL BEHIND THE CHALLENGE
The Cooktown Ten (C-10)
Violence doesn't just happen. It is a choice. Before any act of violence, six factors may come together, like the ingredients of a bomb. Soften just one of them, and violence can be defused and stopped.
This is the insight behind the C-10: a model developed by Dr Bill Liley, when working as a GP in Cooktown, Far North Queensland. Take a deeper dive here. It is used by health workers, counsellors, teachers, and community members to have real conversations about preventing violence, before it occurs.
When all six factors overwhelm, contempt emerges; the belief that someone (including oneself) is less worthy, less human, or less deserving of respect. Contempt for someone identifies the target of violence.
THE C-10: SIX FACTORS of VIOLENCE and their SIX PREVENTION ACTIONS
Each factor is shown in the diagram below. The purple label is the factor, what makes violence possible. The green label is the factor's prevention action.
WHAT EACH FACTOR MEANS and HOW TO COUNTER IT
Frustration → Options
A sense there are no other choices. Give people options and paths forward.
Isolation → Connection
Being cut off from others. Build connection — social, emotional, cultural.
Desperation → Hope
All hope is gone. Restore a sense that things can change.
Prejudice → Respect
Dehumanising beliefs about others. Counter with genuine respect and dignity.
Place → Safety
A setting where violence feels possible. Choose to be a person with whom others are safe to be with.
Trigger → Therapy
Unhealed trauma that activates an alarmed response. Healing and support reduces these thresholds.
THE FOUR LIFE PROCESSES
The C-10 also recognises four basic life processes that sustain health and resilience — and where prevention can take root.
Inputs
Good food, clean air, fresh water. What we take in from life.
Outputs
What we release and let go, physically, emotionally, and socially.
intimacies
Moving, meeting, mixing. Our relationships with others and our world.
Endings
Heritage, tradition, mortality. What we leave behind and how we let go.
Show us one moment where someone softened a factor.
How did that happen?
It could be a conversation, a gesture, a decision, a community, a place. Quiet and small, or bold and public. Any setting. Any type of violence. Show us the action, thought, or delay that turned the situation around.
WHAT YOUR ARTWORK CAN BE
• Paint or draw • Write or poem
• Film or animate • Music or song
• Photo or collage • Sculpture
• Community mural • Digital art
✓ Register online to be considered for a judge's award.
✓ Create your artwork using the C-10 as your creative springboard.
✓ Depict prevention: an intervention, a shift in attitude, a moment of kindness or connection.
✓ Post your work on Instagram with #stopitbeforeitstarts and @violencepreventionaustralia
• Do not depict or glorify violence itself.
• No identifiable person under 18 may appear in any entry.
