Community-led prevention projects
Responsible government
- Commonwealth
Fourth Action Plan actions
- Primary prevention is key
- 3 Implement targeted primary prevention activities designed by, and tailored for, the specific communities they are intended to support.
- Respect, listen and respond to the diverse lived experience and knowledge of women and their children affected by violence
- 10 Implement community-led and tailored initiatives to address the unique experiences and needs of communities affected by multiple forms of discrimination or inequality.
What are we doing?
The Commonwealth Government will provide $8.6 million between 2019–20 and 2021–22 to fund community-led prevention projects.
Community-led prevention projects will empower people to:
- challenge violence supportive attitudes and behaviours
- promote gender equality
- form respectful, equal relationships.
Community-led prevention projects aim to address the structural and gendered factors that drive and reinforce violence against women, as well as promote and encourage men as role models in the community and in their families.
Projects focus on the needs of diverse communities, including:
- children and young people
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- women with disability
- women living in rural and remote communities
- culturally and linguistically diverse communities
- people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.
What have we achieved so far?
- Sixteen organisations have been funded under this initiative and activities commenced in February 2020. The grants include:
- thirteen (13) Community-led Projects to Prevent Violence against Women and their Children; and
- three (3) Men as Role Models for Preventing Violence against Women and their Children projects.
- Activities commenced in February 2020.
- The Department of Social Services has engaged Our Watch to:
- support the above grant recipients to understand and apply evidence and best practice in the design, implementation and monitoring of their activities.
- four primary prevention workforce capacity building workshops were held online from May-July 2020 and another four held again in April 2021.
- evaluate the grant programs as well as their individual projects and their alignment to Change the Story, Counting on Change, Changing the Picture and other key strategies.
- support the above grant recipients to understand and apply evidence and best practice in the design, implementation and monitoring of their activities.
What is next?
- Activities will continue to progress until the project end date of 30 June 2022.
- Our Watch will continue work with community organisations funded under Men as Role Models and Community-led Grant Programs to understand and apply best-practice evidence in their activities.
An interim emerging findings report on the evaluation of the community-led prevention projects as a whole is due in December 2021, with the final report to be provided in July 2022.
What difference will we make?
- The intended outcomes of these projects are that community attitudes towards violence against women improve; and more people stand up against violence, and the behaviours and attitudes that support violence.
- Potential indicators for understanding the impact of these projects include:
- increased understanding of violence against women
- decreased proportion of people who deny gender inequality is a problem
- decreased proportion of people who condone aggression and disrespect towards women.