The ANROWS Action Research Support (ARS) team recently facilitated the second round of Action Research Support workshops for the Building Safe Communities for Women and their children (BSCW) projects. Workshops were held on both the West coast (Perth) on 14 & 15 November and the East coast (Brisbane) on 1 & 2 December 2016. The number of BSCW projects funded was increased in July and there are now 40 funded projects across Australia.

Eighteen participants representing 11 projects attended the two day Action Research Support workshop in Perth and 34 participants representing 22 projects attended the Brisbane workshop.

The workshop combined action research group activities with guest presentations from ANROWS CEO, Heather Nancarrow about research,  and knowledge translation and exchange, and Our Watch staff Michelle Hunt and Scott Holmes, about the national shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women “Change the Story”. In addition, a number of projects presented “Stories from the Field”, highlighting their successes, challenges and key learnings to date.

Participants from the workshop held in Perth reported that one of the best things about the workshop was the opportunity to meet with staff from other projects, to share learnings, challenges and resources.

 Workshop feedback quotes included:

I enjoyed the field stories; sharing information with other states and meeting everyone from different backgrounds. I attend a lot of conferences and this one was unique with representation from a range of different projects. I really enjoyed it I haven’t been sitting here bored.

It was great to put faces to names and get insights into different projects. I’ve got pages of notes to augment what we are already doing.

I thought we were quite isolated and hearing from everyone else gives me hope – seeing what everyone else is doing on a primary prevention level.

 The next workshop is planned for June 2017, providing an opportunity to bring all 40 projects together from across Australia to share their learnings.

The workshop presentations and Action Research Resources can be found on the ANROWS ARS webpage. 

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