On Wednesday 5 April 2017, domestic and family violence prevention practitioners from across Australia met in Sydney for the first face-to-face meeting of a new initiative of the ANROWS Action Research Support (ARS) Project, the Building Safe Communities for Women and their children (BSCW) Community of Practice. The aim of the BSCW Community of Practice is to build on connections between practitioners to enable joint problem solving, resource sharing and knowledge development around the use of action research in the prevention of violence against women.

The formation of the BSCW Community of Practice has been made possible by a grant provided to ANROWS by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth). Additionally, the Department of Social Services (DSS) will support an extension of the Community of Practice through until December 2017. ANROWS is facilitating the Community of Practice in partnership with the Our Watch Practice Leadership team.

Oftentimes, the rapidness with which programs are initiated to prevent and respond to violence against women, limits opportunities for the significant expertise and practice-wisdom of those working to implement interventions to be captured and shared, and to thus contribute to the growing evidence-base around “what works” in the primary prevention of domestic and family violence. As one participant highlighted in Wednesday’s meeting, “there’s so much good work that’s been happening, we don’t want to be reinventing the wheel”.

The BSCW Community of Practice aims to build upon the existing skills and knowledge of practitioners and will continue to meet throughout the year both face to face and via video conference.

Find out more about the BSCW projects and Action Research Support here.

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