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Annual Domestic & Family Violence Awareness Black Coffee Morning Tea 2025

Rachel Daniels, Michael Grundon, Melissa Anderson wearing the Wear Purple For Change shirts.

Black Coffee Indigenous Business Network is excited to again be part of the now annual Wear Purple for Change initiative in May’s Domestic and Family Violence Preventation Month.

Wear Purple for Change was created by Gawun Supplies and Blaq Diamonds with Challenge DV to raise both awareness about and funds for domestic and family violence. Last year we helped to support a Black Coffee morning tea, as well as encouraging everyone to wear purple during the month. 

This year there will again be a number of activities held across the month of May. 2025 activities will include:  

  1. 2nd May Black Coffee – Brisbane with Minter Ellison Morning tea  
  2. 29th-30th May Darkness to Daylight run. Look for the Purple Army team!  https://www.darknesstodaylight.org/
  3. 30th May – Toowoomba Black Coffee supporting Toowoomba Together Incorporated.

More activities to be announced. 

How can you be part of this year’s initiatives?

  • Wear your own purple shirt or buy a purple shirt from Gawun with proceeds going to ChallengeDV.
  • Set up your own Black Coffee event in May fundraising for your own local community organisation.
  • Sign up for the Darkness to Daylight Run.

We hope you can support this important cause. 

If you need or anyone you know needs help, please contact – 

  • 13YARN – 13 92 76 – confidential one-on-one yarning with a Lifeline-trained Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter
  • National Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or 1800respect.org.au
  • DVConnect Womensline [QLD] – 1800 811 811 or dvconnect.org/womensline
  • DVConnect Mensline [QLD] – 1800 600 636 or dvconnect.org/mensline
  • Sexual Assault Helpline [QLD] – 1800 010 120 dvconnect.org/sexual-assault-helpline
  • No To Violence – 1300 766 491 or ntv.org.au
  • Lifeline (24-hour Crisis Line) – 131 114 or lifeline.org.au
  • In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000) and ask for the police.

Keep an eye out on our socials, later in the year for our December Toy Drive for families experiencing Domestic and Family Violence.

 

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Mob Only, After Dark: Brisbane Black Coffee beside the river

“I’m gonna be in town next week, time for a catch up?”

Well, those are the words every Black Coffee Coordinator LOVES to hear.

And so it was. A hastily organised Black Coffee, sponsored by the beautiful Nicole Brown all the way from Larrakia Country. The event sponsored by Nicole Brown and Seven Seasons was a success. And didn’t Brisbane turn on the weather!?! With over 30 people in attendance from across South East Queensland it was an absolute pleasure to yarn, connect and be in each other’s company.

Thanks Nicole. We can’t wait to have you back again!

Our co-founder Leesa created a quick video you can check out, for pics from the evening.

If you’re interested in a Black Coffee After Dark or a Mob Only event, get in touch with the team.

 

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Black Coffee Theory of Change

When you’re so busy working hard, how do you know if you’re making a difference? When you’re completely immersed in the nitty-gritty, you have no time to look around and see if what you’re doing is actually working. We’ve felt like that for a long time. So busy trying to manage Black Coffee as a probono side project, we’ve had no time to do anything else. 

In 2021, we were invited to submit a proposal to the Mannifera Foundation. I knew straight away what I’d use extra funds for, and that was a theory of change. 

Why is a theory of change important?

Well, I have a theory about the value of Black Coffee. 

The theory that I’ve been talking about for since October 2014, is that Black Coffee helps Indigenous business owners connect with each other, which makes the whole scary journey of being a business owner a little less scary. This means that folks feel better in themselves, in their work and in their families and communities. Building better relationships means we can build better businesses. 

That’s a great theory right? But how do I know if it’s actually true in reality? 

In order for me to ‘prove’ that I’m right, I actually have to test my theory. We do this by 

  1. writing it down in a document
  2. test the theory through evaluation
  3. revisiting the theory of change, update it
  4. testing the theory again … rinse and repeat

That’s what this project has been about.

With support from the Mannifera Foundation we have completed stage 1 – writing it down. The next stage is about testing our theory and getting feedback. 

Black Coffee doesn’t exist in isolation. Many people from across the country have different ideas about what it is and how it should run, and why we do it.  Over the next six months we are going to start testing the theory so we will be reaching out to as many people as possible for their thoughts, ideas and experiences of Black Coffee.  We will be doing this through yarns and surveys. We would love to hear from as many people as possible.

Click here to read the Black Coffee Theory of Change (2023), and if you’d like to share your experiences, please reach out to Rachel Daniels, admin@blackcoffee.net.au 

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to the next stage of the journey. 

Cheers, Leesa

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