Let’s Stop Violence Before It Starts: Using primary prevention strategies to engage men, mobilise communities, and change the world (2011)

How can we prevent violence against women? And how can we make progress by engaging men? This one-day workshop provides a comprehensive introduction to frameworks and strategies for primary prevention, with a focus on engaging and mobilising men.

Primary prevention has become a central focus of community and government efforts to address men’s violence against women. This reflects the recognition that we must not only respond to the victims and perpetrators of violence, but also work to prevent this violence from occurring in the first place. The workshop highlights the rapidly developing field of primary prevention, the spectrum of strategies now being adopted, the supports for violence against women they address, and their effectiveness.

Engaging and mobilising men has become an important aspect of prevention work. This work is challenging, even problematic, and yet vital. The workshop emphasises the positive role which men have to play in preventing violence against women. It identifies promising strategies for involving men in work aimed at ending violence against women and building gender equality, drawing on both Australian and international experience. The workshop explores key challenges and dangers, from collusion to backlash, and it emphasises ways in which to extend the reach, appeal and impact of violence prevention among men.

The full text from the workshop and the Powerpoint presentation are available below.