Primary prevention priority area

• Gender inequality is a key driver of family violence. Addressing it is a critical part of our reform to reduce family violence. In 2020, Victoria appointed its first Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Gender Equality Act 2020 (the Act), which came into effect on 31 March 2021. The Act is the first of its kind in Australia. It requires public sector organisations to demonstrate meaningful progress on workplace gender equality. The Act will work to break down discrimination and gender barriers in the public sector. It also guides gender equality for defined entities, including the Victorian public sector, local government, university and TAFEs. The Commissioner has also received the first workplace gender audits from defined entities. Gender equality action plans, which must include workplace gender audit data, are due to the Commissioner on 31 March 2022.
• Organisations across the health sector have developed gender equality action plans in line with the requirements of the Gender Equality Act. These plans include provisions that address violence for staff and consumers.
• Women’s health services are key partners in supporting the health and wellbeing of Victorian women, promoting gender equality and preventing family violence and all forms of violence against women.
• Under the current Victorian Women’s Health Program, 9 regional and 2 state-wide women’s health services are supported with core funding to lead best practice health promotion and the primary prevention of family violence, as well as to promote gender equal health outcomes and prevent illness and disease in Victorian women.
• Over 1,950 Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools are signed on to the whole school approach to Respectful Relationships. More than 35,000 school staff and more than 3,500 early childhood educators have participated in Respectful Relationships professional learning.

• Our Watch launched Respect and Equality at TAFE in July 2021. This is a whole-of-institution approach to preventing violence against women and promoting gender equality. It was developed with the support of the Victorian Department of Education and Training and five TAFEs. The Department of Education and Training will work with TAFEs across Victoria to implement Respect and Equality at TAFE. It aims to support all TAFEs to build an environment where staff and students feel safe, respected and valued.
• We have supported Our Watch to develop the Men in Focus practice guide. This builds on the Men in Focus evidence review, released in 2019. This will provide prevention practitioners with guidance and support to implement best-practice initiatives that engage men and boys.
• Respect Victoria has developed a three-year campaign strategy that will run until 2023–24. Early evaluation of existing campaigns show a high level of community recognition and understanding of key messages. This includes the Pride, Respect, Equality (LGBTIQ+) campaign, released in early 2021. This campaign addresses family violence perpetrated against LGBTIQ+ people by a person’s biological family or the family a person was raised in.

• Respect Victoria commissioned research to deliver a family violence prevention action research project on the transition to parenthood for LGBTIQ+ parents. The project is titled New Parents, New Possibilities and was undertaken in partnership with the Drummond Street Service’s Centre for Family Research and Evaluation. This research provides a suite of resources. These include three booklets for new parents, family and community, and perinatal practitioners. It includes a webinar series developed for the perinatal sector. It also provides an interactive simulation tool with case studies of diverse LGBTIQ+ families.
• The $3.58 million Free from Violence Local Government Program 2022–2025 was announced in December 2021. The program will support up to 15 councils implement the Local government guide for preventing family violence and all forms of violence against women. This will be launched in mid-2022. The guide provides an evidence-based whole-of-council model. It aims to ensure a consistent, best-practice approach to prevention in local government settings. It was developed through an extensive co-design process.
• The Baby Makes 3 Toolkit was developed by Health Ability (previously known as Carrington Health) in partnership with six antenatal service providers. This aims to support educators in childbirth and parenting education programs to promote equal and respectful relationships during the transition to parenthood. Twenty public maternity hospitals across Victoria have implemented the toolkit in their childbirth and parenting programs.
• We are also funding community organisations to deliver programs targeting men and boys and promoting healthier masculinities. These include:
  • delivering a pilot project ‘Engaging with men in faith settings’ with the Islamic Council of Victoria. This was undertaken in partnership with the Jesuit Social Services’ The Men’s Project. The project engages with secondary school students and school staff to prevent family violence and promote healthy masculinity.
  • Gender Equality Victoria has been funded to work with young men to understand bystander behaviour and co-design bystander interventions to support young men to step in when they see violence online.
  • the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative engaged young men and their families to promote respectful relationships. This work was part of the Aboriginal Family Violence Primary Prevention Innovation Fund. It engaged 80 young men across eight primary schools. Feedback indicated their attitudes towards their culture and women had been positively changed.

• The Victorian Government has consulted with the sector to identify priorities for supporting the primary prevention workforce. An internal report set out targeted recommendations and actions. This have informed the deliverables in the Free from Violence Second Action Plan and will inform the next industry plan rolling action plan.
• We have progressed important work to strengthen the prevention system, to ensure enabling supports are in place, and to improve coordination and planning. To support this we have, established new governance forums for the Victorian Government to work closely with the broader sector. We have continued to invest in regional and local level leadership and partnership through women's health services. We have also developed a primary prevention model for local government.
• We have funded Jesuit Social Services to implement the Contributor Workforce Capacity Building project. This builds the capacity of those who work with men and boys every day. This includes social workers, staff in correctional facilities and educators. The aim is to improve the wellbeing and attitudes of men and boys by confronting stereotypical constructions of masculinity. Training was delivered to more than 100 people across four agencies.

• The Free from Violence Second Action Plan 2022–2025: Victoria’s strategy to prevent family violence and all forms of violence against women continues the work started under the first action plan. This plan builds on what we have achieved and learned to continue embedding a primary prevention approach.
• The Primary Prevention Sector Reference Group was established in early 2021. It provides a forum for key leaders in the prevention sector to provide strategic advice to the Victorian Government. This includes advice on policy, program and service development, implementation and delivery. It is co-chaired by Department of Families Fairness and Housing and Respect Victoria. It focuses on current and emerging issues relevant to the primary prevention of family violence and all forms of violence against women.

Creating social and cultural change can take years. Behaviour change campaigns are being delivered by Respect Victoria and the Department of Education and Training’s Respectful Relationships initiative, along with other program activities. These campaigns are starting the conversations that will shift the social norms, practices and structures that allow family violence and violence against women to occur. This work shines a light on some of the less understood forms of violence. It gives Victorians the tools to help prevent violence before it starts.

Primary prevention activities are establishing strong foundations to support sustainable changes across the Victorian Community and in specific settings and sectors. Significant investment has occurred in training and building capabilities and embedding training and models into our education system. This provides a consistency in understanding, approach and language used to address the drivers of family violence and all forms of violence against women.