Safer Community Unit

For students and staff

Safer Community Unit (SCU) responds to reports and disclosures of concerning, threatening and inappropriate behaviour, including sexual harm and family violence. SCU staff will listen impartially to your concerns, discuss ways to keep you safe, help you find the support you may need, and provide advice on reporting an incident. When you contact us, you can also let us know if you prefer to speak with a woman.

Our team

SCU is a multidisciplinary team of investigation and risk assessment specialists, with professional backgrounds in policing, criminal justice, psychology and counselling. All of our team members are LGBTIQA+ Allies and Family Violence Contact Officers with specialist training in Mental Health First Aid, culturally responsive practice, investigations, and threat assessment and management.

Our trained Respect Advisers are also here to help you navigate conflict, disputes, and serious unacceptable behaviour.

We’ll start by checking if your situation is urgent and something we can help with. We might need to refer you to someone else (either at Monash or externally) depending on your circumstances – we’ll discuss this with you first.

If you give us your name and contact details, we’ll get in touch to set up a meeting – this can be done in person (at one of our campuses), online or over the phone, whatever you’d prefer. You can also bring someone with you for support, as long as they’re not involved in the situation you’re reporting.

During the meeting, we’ll talk to you about:

• options available to keep you safe
• how you can access support
• how to make a report to Monash (or an external service).

You'll be given all the information and resources you need to decide what you’d like to do (if anything). You can take your time to make a decision – and you can change your mind or come back to us at any time.

We may be limited in the ways we can help if you:

• reported something anonymously (without giving us your name or contact details)
• don’t want to meet with us
• aren’t a member of the Monash community.

Anonymous reports help us gain valuable information about concerning, threatening and inappropriate behaviour – we’ll still take action even if you report anonymously.

Anything you share with us is confidential – we won’t share it unless there is a serious or imminent risk to the safety of someone else (or if we’re required by law). Find out more in our Safer Community Data Protection and Privacy Collection Statement (pdf, 0.09 mb) and the University’s Data Protection and Privacy Procedure (pdf, 0.2 mb).

About concerning behaviour

Have you seen or experienced concerning behaviour?

Resource hub

Getting help and support

Contact us

Phone: +61 3 9905 1599 Email: safercommunity@monash.edu Hours: Mon–Fri, 9am – 5pm

Report an incident or concern

Check out other support services on our help and support page, or use our online form to request training from our team.

Emergency support

On campus: Call Security 24/7 on 03 9905 3333 (or 333 from a Monash phone) Off campus: Call 000 (Police, Ambulance, Fire)

For a full list, see our emergency contacts page.

Safety online

Personal safety

bSafe app