Coward Punch Take It Home Resource Pack

Project information:

STOP the Coward Punch by Danny Green aims to eliminate the coward punch from society and save lives in the process. Since 1990, over 234 Australians have been killed by a coward punch and many more were injured. The coward punch leaves a devastating ripple through society, mentally and physically scarring family, friends and survivors for life. The STOP the Coward Punch campaign began in 2012 to raise awareness of the devastating impact of this scourge in our society. It aims to educate people about the risks, so they don’t make a choice they’ll regret for the rest of their lives.

The STOP the Coward Punch education package

The STOP the Coward Punch education package aims to spread awareness about the devastating effects of the coward punch on our community. It explores the social constructs that shape behaviours and attitudes toward violent and aggressive behaviours, whilst investigating statistics behind coward punches in Australia. Young people will learn about the legal and personal implications of the coward punch and explore strategies to reduce its incidences. STOP the Coward Punch continues its mission, through the education resources, to eliminate this particularly cowardly form of violence from society and save lives, and importantly, rebrand the formerly known 'king hit' or 'one punch' as a 'coward punch'.

This education package was developed by a team of experts, including a youth worker, education specialist and specialist teachers and references the latest research and laws on coward punches.

The supporting resources include a Facilitation Guide to support a whole-community approach, a Take It Home Resource Pack for parents/caregivers and three one-on-one workshops designed to support young people who may be displaying risk factors for coward punches or violent behaviours. There are also two introductory workshops and over 40 lessons contained within the following subject-specific units:

While each lesson or unit can be delivered independently, we recommend a broad whole-community approach to achieve the greatest impact.

Contents

Part A

What To Expect

Part B

Communicating With Facilitators

Part C

Communicating With Young People

Part D

If You Notice At-Risk Behaviours

Part E

Where To Get Help

Part F

About Coward Punches

Part G

The Lessons

Part A: What to expect

The STOP the Coward Punch education package is designed to help facilitators, parents/caregivers and interested community members begin conversations with young people that will help them become more aware of how to manage their anger, de-escalate tense situations and stand up against violent behaviours. Talking to young people about violence can sometimes be uncomfortable or triggering for both the adult and young person involved. Leaning into this discomfort whilst becoming more informed is the best possible way you can ensure you are equipped to support your child as they navigate the challenges of the world.

What to expect from your school, club or organisation:

Invitation to attend a community information session
Engagement with the local community, including Elders, religious leaders, coaches and other relevant or interested community members
Delivery of the STOP the Coward Punch Introductory Workshops and subject-specific lessons to your child
Regular communication with you and the broader community.

Your involvement in the program:

Attend the community information session
Reach out to your school, club or organisation if you have any relevant expertise that could support the facilitation of the program, such as drug and alcohol counselling, youth work, legal expertise or law enforcement
Have regular, non-confrontational conversations with your child about violence prevention before, during and after the learning program
Monitor any at-risk behaviours you notice a/your child demonstrating and get help if needed
Consider completing the connected online course to learn about how to manage aggressive and violent behaviours and better understand risk and protective factors for violence, substance use and crime.

If you have found these resources independently, you can use this Email Request Template to encourage your school or local organisation to deliver the STOP the Coward Punch education package.

Part B: Communicating with facilitators

Before delivering these lessons, the staff at your child’s school, club or organisation will have met to plan a consistent approach across and understanding. They will include support staff such as nurses, counsellors, youth workers and wellbeing officers to ensure that any questions or worries that are expressed by the young people involved will be quickly and appropriately addressed.

To support the successful facilitation of this program, you might choose to share with facilitators (when and if appropriate) any knowledge you have of a/your child’s constructive or non-constructive behaviours around anger, violence or substance use.

Attend the community information session and ask any questions you might have. If you have any relevant skills or expertise, you might like to offer to help out or facilitate a session.

Part C: Communicating with young people

As children reach adolescence and young adulthood, it is natural that they will start to explore their identity and lean into their social circle, along with finding greater excitement in taking risks than they may have in the past. Pairing this with greater access to drugs and alcohol can seem like a recipe for disaster, but acting like you don’t know your child is using them, may actually lead to even riskier behaviour.

Why? If they find themselves in a situation they’re uncomfortable with, they’ll either not know where to ask for help, or feel too worried that they’ll get in trouble about rule-breaking to let you know!

Instead, it is better to take the time to talk to young people about who they spend their time with and what they get up to.

You can try:

Working together to set boundaries. Giving agency and showing your child that you trust their input helps them feel they’re not just having rules imposed on them.
Explaining why you’ve set the rules you have. Talk about some of the statistics they/you have learnt through the STOP the Coward Punch education package and have a conversation around these.
Having regular smaller conversations when something relevant comes up, rather than just ‘the talk’ about substance use or violence.
Making it a conversation, not a lecture. It should go both ways and you may find you need to take more responsibility for your own behaviours in order to set a good example.

Part D: If you notice at-risk behaviours

The first thing you can do if you notice any behaviours of concern displayed by your child, is to talk to them. If this fails, you can reach out for help using any of the numbers in Part E or those provided in the one on one workshops (see below).

You or an adult that your child trusts could use the one on one workshops to support conversations and build rapport with your child. There are three one on one workshops:

Anger And Me - explores why anger happens, what occurs in our brains and bodies to cause feelings of anger and how we can manage our feelings and behaviours.
Substances And Me - explores how and why our body can become reliant or addicted to substances and provides recommendations for finding alternative sources of emotional support or comfort.
I Really Messed Up This Time - helps the young person work through a crisis where they may have hurt someone else by their behaviours and could be facing hefty emotional, punitive and/or legal consequences for their actions.

Each of these resources contains a relevant and specific list of referral services.

Part E: Where to get help

If a young person you know needs support with these topics, the best place to start is with your school wellbeing team. They can refer the young person to a counsellor or psychologist if needed. Alternatively, these details will be provided by facilitators of the program and you can also contact these numbers with them if needed:

Note: There are additional referral services provided in the one-on-one workshops.

Kids Helpline

Kids Helpline provides 24 hours a day, 7 days a week phone and online counselling service for Australian children and young people aged between 5 and 25 years.
Website: http://www.kidshelp.com.au/
Phone: 1800 551 800

Headspace

The National Youth Mental Health Foundation provides information and advice for young people going through difficulties through their Headspace centres and online and telephone support services
Website: https://www.eheadspace.org.au/
Phone: 1800 650 890

If any information or conversations during the delivery of the STOP the Coward Punch program trigger your own trauma or memories of abuse or assault, we strongly encourage you to reach out for help to a professional therapist. Some organisations that can also help you are:

Blue Knot Foundation

Blue Knot Foundation is a national specialist service that provides over-the-phone counselling, information and support for adult survivors of childhood trauma and abuse. Their Helpline operates Monday – Sunday 9am to 5pm.
Website: https://www.blueknot.org.au/
Phone: 1300 657 380

1800RESPECT

1800RESPECT is a national counselling helpline that offers support and information around domestic violence and sexual assault 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Website: https://www.1800respect.org.au/
Phone: 1800 737 732

Part F: About coward punches

Significant considerations of changing trends between the 2002 - 2012 and 2012 - 2019 data will be helpful to shape conversations with young people. These include:

There was a decreasing trend in deaths, from 14 in 2012 down to 6 in 2018.
The median age was 44 (range 18-71) years, demonstrating a drop in younger victims (previously 33 years).
In our previous study, the majority of deaths occurred on a weekend (52.3%), however, the new data indicated a shift towards weekday assaults, with 58.5% occurring between Monday and Friday.
Saturday still incurred the highest proportion of assaults compared with any other day, representing a quarter of all cases (25.6%).
The drop in deaths occurring in licensed venues was noteworthy; only 8.5% of deaths occurred in hotels, bars or other licensed venues, compared with 41% in our previous study. However, 34 deaths (41.5%) occurred on a footpath or roadside, of which 17 (20.7%) had been at a licensed venue immediately prior.
When categorised according to whether or not the location was related to attendance at a licensed venue, the differences are even more obvious: those that occurred at, around or upon leaving a hotel/pub/licensed venue comprised 24 cases in total (29.3%), whereas those that occurred in or around a home, shop, public transport stop or footpath/roadway not having recently attended a licensed venue comprised 58 cases overall (70.7%).

To learn more about coward punches or the STOP the Coward Punch campaign, you can refer to these resources:

STOP the Coward Punch website
STOP the Coward Punch YouTube channel
A summary of coward punch laws in Australia
News.com summary of coward punch research
VIFM Research Update 2019
An analysis of offence patterns and legal response to one-punch fatalities in Australia (2025)

Part G: The lessons

You can access the entire STOP the Coward Punch education package in one place. Here is a summary of what it includes:

Introductory Workshops - The entire cohort will attend an introductory workshop relevant to their age group where they will learn about the STOP the Coward Punch campaign and Danny Green's story.
Health and Physical Education - Young people will explore a range of personal and interpersonal skills, learning to manage their emotions and challenge destructive behaviours. They will explore how humans relate to one another and learn communication strategies for preventing potentially violent events from occurring.
English - Young people will explore the ways that violence is portrayed in media and creative texts. They will have opportunities to analyse texts and create their own.
Civics and Citizenship - Young people will investigate the criminal prosecution process as applicable to Australian laws, the operations of the criminal justice system, the role of the court and the ways in which the law changes and grows through public and political engagement.
Science - Young people will examine the physics behind punches, the forces involved in a Coward Punch attack and the effect on the body's systems.
The Arts - Drama, Visual Art and Media Art lessons support young people to explore creative ways of expressing issues around violence. They will explore the works of other artists and develop techniques and strategies in each artform that will challenge them to take a stand on violence.

If you wish to learn more about the specific content of these lessons, you can view them on the Cool.org website or speak with a facilitator of the program at your school, club or organisation.

Coward Punch - Take it Home Resource Pack

Go to

Summary

Lesson guides and printables

In this lesson