PREVENTING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN A COLLOBORATIVE PARTNERSHIP PROJECT ACROSS THE INNER EACH CATCHMENT

 Eight partner project  18 months – 3 Phases  Inner East catchment including the municipalities of Whitehorse, Manningham and Boroondara.  Service Agreement  Memorandum of Understanding  Steering Group

 “To work within a local government setting in collaboration with key partners to establish a commitment to developing a policy framework and resources to support the prevention of violence against women by June 2012”. ◦ Embed and drive cultural change ◦ Capacity building focus ◦ Awareness and understanding

 To increase awareness and understanding of violence against women among Councillors, Senior Management and Council Officers by June 30 th  To build leadership and strategic alliances that supports the prevention of violence against women through strategies and initiatives across the inner east municipality local government offices by June  To document and disseminate the successes and challenges of the primary prevention initiatives implemented within the Inner East local government areas and share findings within the area and beyond by project completion in June 30 th 2011.

 Identify where each of the local government sites are at in their prevention of violence against women journey  Consultation: family violence sector, local government, women’s health sector, sports sector, industrial relations, university academics

 Aligns with National and State government initiatives and expert opinion.  Adopts VicHealth’s (2007) Framework to guide primary prevention of violence against women, an ecological model for understanding violence.  Capacity Building Framework  Cultural change  Behavioural and attitudinal change.

 Identify champions and ambassadors within Council  Embed the change  Small opportunistic steps  Awareness raising  The value of consistent messages  Shared learning’s – although not one size fits all  Leadership is central to success.

 Pre and post survey  Department Presentations  Large scale event  Management Presentations & Support

 Pre and post survey ◦ Vichealth PVAW Community Attitudes ◦ Academic engaged to assist ◦ Raising awareness and understanding  Management & Department Presentations ◦ Definitions, Prevalence, Causes ◦ Examples from other Councils ◦ Department specific ideas

 “Inner East Local Government Leaders Taking a Stand to Prevent Violence Against Women” ◦ Raise awareness and understanding reinforcing actions ◦ What can you do in your role in the next 12 months to PVAW? ◦ What would be some of the challenges or barriers? What would assist you to overcome these? ◦ 17 expert individuals to guide conversations, drawing upon their knowledge and expertise ◦ Postcards

 Management support ◦ Top Down/ Bottom Up approach ◦ Utilising senior leadership support ◦ Research demonstrates the importance of managerial support ◦ Presentations at Executive Management meetings

 Working in partnership across sectors  Director/Management & Officer support  Documentation that demonstrates and articulates governance  Acting on opportunities, working with people who showed interest  Establishing a Project Steering Committee  Early and ongoing engagement with gender experts  Housing the position within Council  Realistic timeframes set

 The tension of treating all sites equally (equality) vs investing more time and effort in sites that needed more support (equity).  Establishing communication and decision making structures  Different styles of management and culture within each council  Given time and resourcing limitations of the project, it has been difficult to act on all opportunities

 Change Process ◦ Pre contemplation ◦ Contemplation ◦ Knowledge  Partnership work is an ongoing changing process ◦ Trust ◦ Maximum on the opportunities

A long journey but we are seeing great results…. Thank-you

 NICOLE MEINIG ◦ HEALTH PROMOTION COORDINATOR ◦ CITY OF MONASH ◦ ◦