Companion House will facilitate a series of workshops with young people (focusing on young men, and including young women) to build messages of respect and prevention of family violence. Young people will advise on creating resources using these messages and will share these resources at community events.

The MOW will help participants to develop knowledge and awareness of the issues to establish a context to initiate the conversation within their own communities and mainstream communities and contribute to the reduction of DFV.

The workshops will look at a variety of issues in reference to DFV. These issues include:

• Domestic and family violence: address the drivers of domestic and family violence; inequality, gender and power relations.
• Relationships Australia: focusing on respectful relationships and domestic violence.
• Reframing masculinity: why reconstructing men’s lives and relations should be a key focus of violence preventative work.
• Menslink: based on their “Silence is Deadly” program this workshop will also focus on speaking out against domestic and family violence in the community.
• Prevention and practice: the human cost of violence and empowering non-violent men to prevent violence against women.

The SISters project includes: the production of a partner visa information kit with information about partner visa rights and regulations; safe referral and reporting pathways information; participatory activities to use when working with women on sponsored partner visas; and training workshops for community workers and others working with women on sponsored partnervisas.

The project will compile documentation and report on questionnaires and other feedback to contribute to an evidence base regarding the experience and needs of women on sponsored partner visas.

The strategies that will be implemented would empower women, men and young people with: the right information; knowledge and understanding about healthy and unhealthy relationships; positive communication and negotiation; and mutual respect between the genders.

These strategies will develop participants’ skills in discerning attitudes and behaviours that support violence against women and their confidence in taking appropriate and effective action. The project will actively engage men in organising a White Ribbon event and taking the White Ribbon pledge, and engage the community in a dialogue on sexism and rigid gender stereotypes, which encourage violence against women.

Men from Arabic and Punjabi speaking communities will be trained as WBs to facilitate meaningful conversations with other men in their own communities. These WBs will facilitate conversations in both small groups and with individuals. Conversations will be held during men’s activities and at meeting places that men regularly frequent for example, gathering in tea/coffee houses, sports events, social activities and at places of prayer.

Support will also be extended to NSW Police and courts through the provision of WB bilingual DV support officers for cultural expertise and assistance during charging or police interaction in court or at a police station.

The outcomes of the project include:

•  Outcome 1: Emerging/community leaders gain knowledge and skills to deliver prevention of violence against women (PVAW) messages and work within their communities.
• Outcome 2: A network of Afghan, Indian and South Sudanese community leaders and organisations; and regular engagement and peer support for growth and sustainability – this outcome extends beyond the life of the project.
• Outcome 3: Keep women and families safe and educated; help women to become empowered to act and make changes; support community leaders to change the dominant ideology; and work towards a positive and respectful community living free from violence.

The project will develop a resource kit based on:

• customised community ambassadors (CA’s) training;
• Legal Aid NSW’s Charmed & Dangerous publication, to support CA’s community engagement with culturally appropriate, translated resource (Legal Aid is about to publish this in Arabic and Dari Farsi versions).

The resource kit will include posters, brochures, AV resources and presentations. The project will translate the information into the relevant community languages.

A Mothers as Mentors group will be established at each public school. The focus of this group will be to empower women in developing leadership and mentoring skills to become change advocates in their communities. Tailored education workshops with the Mothers as Mentors group aim to raise awareness of the attitudes, behaviours and gender stereotypes that support violence against women and children.

School staff and teachers will participate in training workshops on understanding gendered violence and the impact of trauma on child development. Age appropriate workshops will be delivered for children focusing on gender equality and respectful relationships.

The project intends to:

• develop communities’ conceptual understanding and recognition of domestic violence (DV) within the context of culture, gender, generational differences and social changes and their impact on individuals and communities;
• build communities’ capacity in the planning, development and management of appropriate community driven DV awareness and prevention initiatives; and
• develop culturally appropriate resources/interventions in partnership with the community.

Bilingual/bicultural community members (BBCM) will conduct focus groups with community members to identify the sociocultural context for and perceptions of DV. This information will be analysed and used to design DV awareness and intervention resources based on communities’ views, these may include but are not limited to resources, programs, audio-visuals, positive behavioural mandates and tailored messages for each community.

Through consultation, connection and collaboration between community members and service providers the project will facilitate access to and development of mainstream programs that are culturally appropriate and targeted whilst also increasing community awareness and understanding of the attitudes and behaviors that lead to violence to facilitate community-driven and long-term change.

A project worker, based in the South Community Hub, will achieve the above objectives through the: facilitation of a peer support groups for men; development of an online video resource in different languages; delivery of community forums annually with community and religious leaders; and cultural competency training.

Mainstream services within RASA, Anglicare, SHINE SA and women’s legal services will be involved to develop referral pathways and assess workers’ learning needs.

• Focus groups will be used to identify attitudes associated with family violence. The focus groups will be managed by two people: one that facilitates the group and one that records data about the discussions and ideas. Content from discussions will be used when designing training packages.
• Pre- and post-questionnaires will be used when training packages are delivered to positive change agents. Two focus groups following the training will examine participants’ contribution and experiences when addressing the issues within their network.
• A photographic essay or a video will be developed to capture the feedback from members of the general African communities.

In addition, three cases have been prepared that will form the basis of discussions in interactive workshops. A short, plain English post-training questionnaire has been developed using a five-point Likert-type scale to measure instant satisfaction. A gender attitude scale has been developed and will be administered pre- and post-workshop. There will be rapid “reaction” discussions with a sample of participants directly after most training sessions, to ask about their reactions to and impressions of the session. Six post-training focus groups will be conducted. An analysis of partnerships will be conducted, with the goal of maintaining on-going relationships for further work with the same communities to help stop family and domestic violence.

Each workshop will be followed by reflections and observations by the two project leaders and discussed with Effective Change. Any change required for the project will be recorded and evaluated.

This project aims to engage with the Greek-speaking population of Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The project aims to deliver educational seminars and activities to community members of all ages ranging from early childhood and adolescents and upwards. It will also work to ensure prevention, awareness and intervention for parents and elderly citizens, within the two year funding period.

1. Raising the community’s knowledge and awareness of DV and its relevant community resources.
2. Reducing cultural stigma and encouraging help-seeking for formal services.
3. Enhancing individuals’ and families’ capacity to manage negative emotions, conflicts and risks concerning DV.

• Pre- and post-questionnaires: to compare the differences/changes after the program inputs/intervention. The areas to be compared will include awareness, knowledge, skills, perception, attitude, confidence and relationship. Participants of seminars, workshops, groups and training will be asked to do a pre-questionnaire before they attend the program, and they will be asked to do the post-questionnaire. We will then analyse the data collected from the questionnaires and produce a report.
• Feedback questionnaires: to collect participants, community leaders and volunteers’ feedback about the activities delivered during the program.
• Focus groups: we will invite participants to attend focus groups to share their experience, insights and changes after attending the programs. Their feedback and comments about the project and program will inform our report and activities.

We are seeking to work with 30-40 Karen and Afghan families over the course of this primary prevention project. We are working to increase the skills of parents to deal with difficult circumstances, and to raise awareness of the effects of violence. By doing so, we believe that together we can meaningfully increase gender equity and reduce communities’ tolerance for domestic violence.

Action research will be used throughout the project to help apply lessons to steer sessions from workshop to workshop. Participants will complete pre- and post-workshop questionnaires to assess attitude changes and retention of key messages. Stories of Most Significant Change (MSC) will be used to monitor and evaluate program impact across the duration of the project.

Participants are mothers of pre-school children primarily within 10 years of arrival in Australia.

This project has supported VICSEG to further develop our relationships with family violence networks in each catchment

The conversations will be conducted in English and a range of community languages including Hindi, Dinka, Arabic, Assyrian Chaldean and Tamil. The project refers women who disclose FV or other issues and concern to the appropriate agencies. These conversations will continue for the life of the project. Participants will choose the directions conversations take. To date, this process has supported the introduction of concepts that are new to some women including financial and emotional abuse.

Existing playgroups for diverse communities in the five targeted municipalities, currently an average of three playgroups in each municipality, will participate in the project.

To date, a number of themes have emerged, such as the importance of holding conversations discussing, what are respectful relationships in a range of cultural contexts. Those conversations always lead to discussions about relationships that are not respectful. The playgroup participants also discuss how parenting is done and shared within their own cultural contexts.

These initial conversations have formed the basis for a second stage of the project, which will support participants to decide what information about various aspects of family violence prevention they wish to pursue. Some topics already identified include services for survivors, divorce, financial abuse and the specifics of spousal visas. The project then invites experts to present to playgroup participants on issues they have chosen.

VICSEG has found it important to empower women to choose the prevention, early intervention and intervention issues that are discussed within their playgroups.

VICSEG hopes that the documentation of cultural beliefs and values about parenting and partner relationships undertaken in this project will support and add to existing research in this under-researched area.

The aims of the project are to:

• develop and deliver educational workshops that raise awareness on: issues associated with gender equity, human rights and women’s rights; respectful relationships; parenting; and domestic and family violence, including early and forced marriage;
• successfully engage with key stakeholders and local CALD communities to drive sustainable changes in attitudes and behaviours that lead to or contribute to the prevalence of violence against women and their children;
• utilise a culturally-relevant approach to ensure that activities are appropriate and targeted; and
• promote existing supports available within local CALD communities.

This program is designed to: improve women’s understanding of their own health and safety issues; the steps to take to prevent harm to themselves and their children; maintain healthy and respectful family relationships; build resilience and positive parenting skills; increase their self-reliance and self-confidence; and learn about the services available to them and how to access them.

The project aims to:

• foster positive and equal relationships between community members affected by FGC;
• reduce tolerance of gender-based violence including family violence; and
• contribute to the elimination of the practice of FGC in the NMR of Melbourne.

We aim to achieve this by:

• positively shifting community attitudes regarding SRH, FGC and gender equality;
• increasing community knowledge of SRH, FGC and relevant services and pathways; and
• increasing community confidence to manage their own SRH, especially where it is affected by FGC, and to access relevant services.

Evaluation plans will be developed in consultation with the Critical Friends Group and may include:

• feedback questionnaires pre- and post-whole program delivery;
• feedback questionnaires post-individual module delivery;
• survey of Critical Friends Group and participating
• organisations; and
• qualitative feedback from the above stakeholders.

As the rate of violence against women and their children in Australia is being described as an epidemic, it is imperative that the contexts for violence against women are better explored and leveraged to ensure primary prevention initiatives can be implemented sensitively, effectively and meaningfully across all social and cultural groups.

Engaging with male community leaders, boys and young men, from three key CALD backgrounds and school groups, Save the Children is implementing an ecological model working at three levels of the local Gosnells community to examine, discuss, confront and reframe attitudes towards manhood, masculinity and violence towards women. Program engagement will include a year-long series of primary prevention workshops delivered over six months with local cultural community leaders, school-based workshops on respectful relationships and community events.

With support and guidance through partnerships with the City of Gosnells, White Ribbon Australia and Redeemed Care Inc., Save the Children’s Strength 2 Strength project will support and mentor leaders’ at all three levels in the fight against violence towards women.

• entry and exit surveys assessing values and attitudes towards the four gendered drivers of violence against women;
• exit focus groups;
• observations and reflections tool following each session;
• capturing of contributions from participants during sessions; and
• minutes of staff partnership meetings, staff progress meetings and Advisory Group meetings.