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Prevention of Family Violence

Prevention of violence against women (PVAW) is about stopping violence before it starts by addressing the underlying causes or ‘drivers’. Gender equality in public and private life is at the core of preventing violence against women.

Women’s Health Victoria

Women’s Health in the South East (WHISE) is the regional women’s health service for the Southern Metropolitan Region of Victoria and works to prevent violence against women using evidence based primary prevention techniques and strategies. At its very core, the work of WHISE is about promoting and normalising gender equality in public and private life.

WHISE is the backbone organisation for the regional strategy for the prevention of violence against women Promoting Respect & Equity Together 2021-2025 – A strategy to End Gendered Violence in the Southern Metropolitan Region

Employing an intersectional feminist framework, we partner with a diverse range of organisations active across the Southern Metropolitan Region, including Local Councils, Community Health Services, Specialist Health and Community Services and Not-For-Profit Organisations to:

  • Broaden the type of organisations across the region, who work in primary prevention of gendered violence and promotion of gender equality.
  • Increase the application of intersectional gendered lens planning across all projects, policies, services and health planning practices.
  • Continue to strengthen combined practice and expand expertise across the region through collective learning and sharing opportunities.

To connect with WHISE Promoting Respect and Equity network meetings or to join the free forums that WHISE run, please contact Dani McCaffrey on [email protected]

Our Watch states that Violence against women is preventable, and that there is consensus in the international and national research that violence against women must be understood in the social context of gender inequality. The broad social context of gender inequality produces specific gendered drivers of violence against women. These include:

Read the full Our Watch article here

Watch a short video on the link between gender inequality and gendered violence by Our Watch here

Safe and Equal is the peak body for specialist family violence services that provide support to victim survivors in Victoria. Their work focuses across the continuum from primary prevention through to response and recovery.

Read Safe + Equal’s Primary Prevention Strategy for 2022-2024 here.

What is Primary Prevention?

How to Use Statistics in Primary Prevention

Intersectionality in Primary Prevention

Respect Victoria is an independent Statutory Authority focused on the primary prevention of family violence for all Victorians. That means stopping violence before it starts, by changing the culture that allows it to happen.

Read Respect Victoria’s Strategic Plan 2023 – 2028:

ANROWS Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited is an independent, not-for-profit research organisation established to produce evidence to support the reduction of violence against women and their children.

The 2021 National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women Survey (NCAS) Attitudes Matter: Summary

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