Programs & Training

Love Bites Respectful Relationships Program

Love Bites programs currently scheduled nationwide. See training calendar to book your place. For other locations please submit an enquiry to express interest in this program.

About Love Bites

Love Bites and Love Bites Junior are extremely successful Respectful Relationships Education Programs for young people aged 11-17 years.

Love Bites is based on best practice standards for education programs as recommended by the Federal Government funded Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearing House and other leading academics in the area of violence against women & young people.

Students participate annually in Love Bites in NSW alone

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Facilitators have been trained across all Australian states and territories to enable them to deliver the program into local schools.

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Love Bites Senior is a Respectful Relationships Education program for young people aged 15-17. It includes two interactive workshops on Relationship Violence and Sex & Relationships, followed by creative workshops and community campaigns. The program can be delivered as a full-day or in multiple sessions. It emphasizes the importance of a whole-school commitment to respectful relationship education.

The program creates a safe environment for young people to explore and discuss respectful relationships. Taking a strength-based approach, Love Bites Senior encourages youth to actively participate in their learning, develop skills, and make informed choices in their relationships.

Key learning areas include:

Knowledge: Youth-led collaborative learning
Attitudes: Critical thinking and decision-making
Behaviours: Problem-solving and communication skills

Love Bites Senior equips young people with the tools to foster respectful relationships, make informed decisions, and communicate effectively, empowering them to live violence-free lives.

Love Bites Junior is designed for young people aged 11-14, focusing on respectful relationships development. It includes three programs that build on the success of the original Love Bites program, which has been implemented since 2003. Community feedback highlighted the need for respectful relationship education for younger students.

The program consists of three parts:

#friends (Year 7): Covers mindful communication, warning signs of abusive behavior, power in relationships, and seeking help.
Respectful Relationships, Bullying, and Gender (Year 8): Explores gender roles, stereotypes, jealousy, sexual harassment, and challenging discrimination.
Relationships, Love, and Control (Year 9): Focuses on gender expectations, controlling relationships, supporting friends, and breaking up with respect.

These programs are designed to be delivered consecutively, with each session building upon the skills and knowledge of the previous one.

The Love Bites Community Model

NAPCAN has trained facilitators in the Love Bites program in communities all across Australia who deliver the program on a voluntary basis in schools and community settings.

Due to the requirement of two trained facilitators to every group of 5-25 young people, the program often requires people from different organisations or schools coming together to support the delivery of the program. We have a strong network of facilitators who can assist in delivering Love Bites within your local community. Our database of facilitators is constantly updating as people undertake training, and when those who trained in the past migrate onto the Community Hub.

In some communities there are dedicated individuals who are passionate about Love Bites that put their hand up to become the local area Love Bites Coordinator / Community Champion. In communities where there are a number of dedicated individuals, Love Bites Committees are formed. These committees bring together people from a number of school and community organisations to organise the rollout of Love Bites for the young people in their area. NAPCAN offers coordinators additional access to the Community Hub to support their planning and coordination of the program in their region.

If you are interested in having Love Bites delivered to your young people, fill out the School/Community Expression of Interest form.
If you are interested in becoming a Love Bites Facilitator, register for training via our Training Calendar.

Student Artwork

About the name

A lot of people ask us about Love Bites name. The history is that the Love Bites program was developed in 2004 in response to community concerns about unhealthy relationships within high school environments on the mid-north coast of NSW. The name was developed in consultation with young people at the time and has stayed with the program ever since. As Love Bites has been continually reviewed, feedback about the name from young people has remained largely positive; it seems to help young people to feel that the program is for them (and informed by them), and that Love Bites is an opportunity for frank and honest conversations.

Love Bites poster templates for facilitators

If you’re already running Love Bites, you’re probably interested in ways to celebrate the great artwork and messages that come out of the program.

NAPCAN has created a simple template so you can turn that artwork into posters to promote Love Bites in your area.

Simply download the template files (portrait and landscape versions are available) and open in ‘Adobe Acrobat’. Click ‘edit PDF’ then ‘add image’, drag your artwork into position and save.

Download the Portrait Template
Download the Landscape Template

(P.S. Make sure you get written permission from the artist/school for any artwork that you want to use.)

Love Bites Info Pack

Download the Love Bites Information Pack

Love Bites Newsletter

Expression of Interest

Have Love Bites delivered to your school & community

Organise Love Bites Training

Answer our quick questionnaire to organise a Love Bites training session, and we’ll be in touch with you shortly!

Who is the Love Bites Program for?

The LOVE BiTES and LOVE BiTES JUNIOR Respectful Relationships Education programs are for students aged between 11 and 17 years. LOVE BiTES has also been adapted so it can be delivered in out-of-school settings, such as alternative school programs, school support units, Juvenile Justice programs and youth holiday programs.

What are the aims of the Love Bites program?

To provide a safe environment in which young people can talk about Relationship Violence, and Sex and Relationships.
To promote and model respectful relationships for young people.
To raise awareness about Relationship Violence – its prevalence and forms.
To bring about attitudinal change in relation to Relationship Violence.
To engage young people, male and female, on the issues of Relationship Violence in a non-sex-segregated environment with male and female facilitators.
To challenge gender stereotypes, attitudes, values and social institutions that perpetuate male violence against women.
To deconstruct the myths that exist in local communities and society generally on Relationship Violence.
To encourage and educate young people to support their friends.
To educate young people through a creative and relevant process that builds on their existing knowledge base.
To introduce young people to local service providers in an informal environment.
To develop youth-led community campaigns on the issues of Relationship Violence.

What makes Love Bites, Love Bites?

LOVE BiTES is a program that promotes a clear, consistent community approach to the issues of Relationship Violence from workers and teachers in local communities.
LOVE BiTES is run by male and female facilitators working together.
Where appropriate,LOVE BiTES sessions do not segregate male and female students. All sessions aim to be conducted with an equal number of male and female students.
LOVE BiTES uses several presentation styles to actively involve young people, including youth-led small group activities; peer-to-peer learning, and art, music and drama workshops.
LOVE BiTES creates local community campaigns developed and led by young people to prevent Violence against Women.
LOVE BiTES generates local ownership of the program as communities adapt the model to fit with their communities. The program uses local scenarios and local service providers to discuss the issues from the local perspective.
LOVE BiTES promotes an integrated partnership approach to prevention for services working in the areas of Domestic and Family Violence; Sexual Assault, Youth and Child Protection; bringing together the Police, Women’s Refuges, Sexual Assault Services, Child Protection Services, Youth Services, Family Support Services and Aboriginal Services.
LOVE BiTES has the potential to improve working relationships between service providers through the co-facilitation of this positive prevention program.