Fact sheet

Lessons from implementing community-based primary prevention

This resource summarises the key findings from ANROWS’s Evaluation Report: White Ribbon Australia’s “Engaging Communities in Sexual Violence Primary Prevention” Project. It provides learnings for organisations who are seeking to fund, design or implement community-based primary prevention programs. 

The Australian Government provided funding to White Ribbon Australia (White Ribbon) to deliver the “Engaging communities in sexual violence primary prevention” project. White Ribbon established Community Action Groups (CAGs) in local communities across Australia, aiming to address gender inequality and prevent violence against women (VAW), including sexual violence.

ANROWS was commissioned to evaluate the White Ribbon Community Action Group model for delivering primary prevention activities. This resource provides an overview of the evaluation and summarises the key findings, which include the following:

• Community-led approaches show some promise in enhancing community awareness and understandings of the prevalence, drivers and different forms of VAW, including sexual violence.
• It is important that primary prevention models are flexible and responsive to diverse community contexts.
• It is important to prioritise capacity building, skill development and education to support people designing and delivering primary prevention interventions.
• We need to invest in delivering and evaluating primary prevention interventions as a long-term strategy that is underpinned by incremental and sustained efforts over time.

The evaluation provides learnings for organisations who are seeking to fund, design or implement community-based primary prevention programs and translates the findings of the Evaluation of White Ribbon Australia’s “Engaging communities in sexual violence primary prevention” project.

 

 

Suggested citation

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2024). Lessons from implementing community-based primary prevention. An evaluation of White Ribbon Australia’s “Engaging communities in sexual violence primary prevention” project: Key findings [Fact sheet]. ANROWS.