I was very happy to open the first meeting of the 2017 NCAS (National Community Attitudes towards Women Survey) Project Advisory Group held in Melbourne on 17 November.  The meeting was attended by members of the Project Advisory Group, the Expert Panel, and of course the Project Implementation Team.

Engagement of a wide range of stakeholders in the NCAS process is critical to the success of the survey and ANROWS’s broader aspirations for NCAS. This will help to ensure that NCAS is relevant to the needs of the sector,  that its findings are used as widely as possible and that a strong community of researchers and practitioners grows around it. The Project Advisory Group is a key mechanism for ensuring such engagement and input.  For this reason, and on behalf of ANROWS and the research team, I thank everyone contributing to the development, implementation and, ultimately, the utilisation of the NCAS to further the work towards ending violence against women.

It was also a pleasure to attend the inaugural WESNET Technology Safety Summit 2016,  which featured presentations from representatives of the USA National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV).  The Summit included an overview of current and emerging technology safety issues related to violence against women; a presentation on technology abuse and assistive technology (designed to assist people with disabilities), image based sexual abuse and exploitation (also referred to as revenge porn); and important consideration sin the development of mobile apps for survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. We also learnt that Safety Net Australia (WESNET) has recruited Kaofeng Lee from NNED, to deliver training on awareness of, and response to, technology facilitated violence for frontline workers across Australia in the coming year.  The Summit concluded with a panel discussion and audience Q&A, facilitated by Cindy Southworth, Executive Vice President NNEDV (USA), with representatives from Telstra, Google, Facebook and Twitter. You can learn more about the Safety Net Australia at https://wesnet.org.au/safetynet/.   

Image, L-R: Cindy Southworth, NNEDV; Tegan Kop, Telstra; Samantha Yorke, Google; Mia Garlick, Facebook; Kara Hinesley, Twitter

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