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Prevent Violence Against Women

Violence against women is preventable. Gender equality is the key to ending violence.

Intimate partner violence is the leading cause of death, disability and illness in Australian women aged 18-44 years. Violence against women has profound, wide ranging, long term impacts on the health and wellbeing of women and children, families and communities. Three in ten Australian women report having experienced physical violence at least once in their lives, and two in ten women report having experienced sexual violence at least once in their lives. Almost one woman each week is killed by a current or former partner. In 2015-16 Victoria Police attended almost 24 family violence incidents each day in the Eastern Metropolitan Region .

Women’s Health East work towards ending violence against women in the Eastern Metropolitan Region by addressing the underlying determinants of violence against women, which are centred around power and gender inequality. We do this through working in partnership with other organisations in a coordinated approach, through advocacy and research, and by implementing primary prevention programs. Take a look at Together for Equality & Respect, the Speaking Out program and LGBTI Family Violence Prevention Project; three examples of how Women’s Health East is working towards preventing violence against women in Melbourne’s East.

For more information on this priority area check out our Resources.

 

Together for Equality & Respect

Women’s Health East is the lead agency for Together for Equality & Respect: Preventing Violence Against Women in Melbourne’s East 2013 – 2021. The Strategy provides partner organisations with the opportunity to work together to prioritise, coordinate and integrate primary prevention efforts to prevent men’s violence against women.

Thirty-five organisations from the Eastern Metropolitan Region, have been actively involved in the consultation and/or development of this Strategy. These partners together created a powerful vision, articulating what they believe this Strategy can contribute to:

  • A society where women live free from men’s violence – where every girl and boy grows up to be equally valued, heard and respected, and with equal access to opportunities.

You can read more about the evidence that underpins the Together for Equality & Respect Strategy or learn about the Action Plan and how the Strategy is contributing to the prevention of violence against women in the Eastern Metropolitan Region by visiting the Together for Equality & Respect website.

 

VOICES FOR CHANGE

A guide to implementing a media advocacy program for the prevention of violence against women.

Violence against women happens in every community, suburb and town, and the voices of survivors need to be heard if we are to end violence against women. A media advocacy program enables women who have experienced violence to share their stories with the public through the media and other community advocacy engagements.

Building on our expertise in leading the Speaking Out program, Women’s Health East was engaged by Our Watch and VicHealth to develop the Voices for Change manual.

Voices for Change: A Media Advocacy Program for the Prevention of Violence Against Women is a step-by-step guide with resources to enable organisations to plan and develop their own Media Advocacy Program with one unequivocal goal: to end violence against women.

Voices for Change is comprised on two essential documents – an Implementation Guide and Facilitator Training Manual.

Implementation Guide170620 ImpGuide_Pic

The Voices for Change Implementation Guide shares the practical experience of organisations in Australia that have pioneered media advocacy work. It outlines how to establish a Media Advocacy Program that can be shaped to your organisation, with women who have different experiences of violence.

Click on the relevant sections to download and read, or alternatively, download the full guide including appendices/resources.

Voices for Change Implementation Guide – full version

Section 1: Introduction

Section 2: History and current context

Section 3: Why media advocacy?

Section 4: Is media advocacy for you?

Section 5: Program planning

Section 6: Working with advocates

Section 7: Creating and managing media advocacy opportunities

Section 8: Appendices

170620 FacilitatorManual_PicTraining Manual

A companion resource to the Implementation Guide is the Voices for Change Facilitator Training Manual on how to run media advocacy training sessions with women who have experienced family violence or sexual assault. It includes practical tools and resources that can be used as a part of the training sessions.

LGBTI Family Violence Prevention Project

Women’s Health East welcomes funding from the Victorian government to deliver a ground-breaking participatory project to help prevent family violence in LGBTI relationships.

This innovative project is an Australian first. It will support LGBTI young people to recognise and develop, healthy, equal and respectful relationships, and encourage local providers to identify and respond to the discrimination and violence faced by LGBTI young people.

Women’s Health East will work with LGBTI young people to investigate and co-design appropriate and relevant resources. These resources will be disseminated across the state to support the development of respectful relationships.

See our media release about the project here.