Focus area 3: Whole-of-community approach

Every Victorian has the power and responsibility to challenge the underlying values and behaviours that lead to family and sexual violence.

Strengthening our community-wide approach to preventing family and sexual violence

In 2017, we launched Free from Violence, Victoria’s strategy to prevent violence before it starts. It aims to address the root causes and drivers of family and gendered violence, including attitudes, cultures and systems that:

• downplay violence against women
• limit women’s independence
• impose rigid gender expectations on people, particularly for men to be aggressive, dominant and in control.

This plan continues our work under Free from Violence. It recognises that everyone can learn and change. We need to involve every part of the community, reaching people in practical ways where they live, learn, work and play.

We will explore new partnerships and ways of working with the private and community sectors so we can work together to:

• reduce and end violence
• foster a culture of respect and safety across Victoria.

For the first time, we are piloting a new, large-scale and place-based approach to preventing and addressing violence – Respect Ballarat: A community model to prevent gendered violence. This model aims to immerse a place with messages and actions to counter violence and its causes, including harmful attitudes, behaviours and inequalities.

Respect Victoria is leading the trial of the ‘Respect Ballarat’ model. The actions, co-designed with the Ballarat community, include:

• conversations
• education and skill building
• community events
• practical changes and resources.

The model makes preventing violence everyone’s responsibility – from people and families to businesses and community organisations.

We will continue to engage people at key life and developmental stages, including:

• as children
• young people
• in older age.

We will become more sophisticated in how we reach diverse groups, including:

• people from LGBTIQA+ communities
• people with disability
• people from different cultural and religious backgrounds.

We will do this through initiatives that are:

• better tailored to each group
• informed by lived experience
• community-led
• meaningful and relevant to the target audience.

We will continue to target the places where Victorians live, work, learn and play – including online spaces.

Community awareness and understanding of family violence has grown. We now have the opportunity to educate people on forms of family violence that are common but less understood, such as coercive control.

Coercive control can be hard to identify or ‘name’, as it often involves isolating victim survivors from their family and friends. Coercive control is linked to risk of serious injury or death.

We want to increase awareness of the signs of coercive control so people can recognise it in their own relationships and help others affected by it.

Supporting children and young people to build respectful relationships

We must protect all children and young people from family and sexual violence, and help those who have experienced it be safe and recover.

To end violence, we must also give children and young people the skills and knowledge to build equal and respectful relationships. Childhood and adolescence are important stages where identity, values and patterns of behaviour are developed.

We will work with young people to help them:

• think critically about online content
• develop healthy identities
• build safe and respectful relationships.

In 2016, we introduced the Respectful Relationships initiative in Victorian schools. Victoria’s Respectful Relationships program helps create lasting change by addressing the attitudes and behaviours that drive violence.

The program helps schools and early childhood educators:

• promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours
• work with children and young people to build safe and respectful relationships, resilience and confidence.

Following an expression of interest during 2024-2025 to expand to further non-government schools, over 2,000 Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools are now signed on to the Respectful Relationships whole-school approach, including all government schools.

Schools also have new Respectful Relationships teaching resources to help students:

• learn how to build and maintain respectful relationships,
• understand consent
• safely navigate online spaces.

Evidence shows that racism is a significant driver of family and gendered violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.[1] It reinforces family and gendered violence against women in culturally and linguistically diverse communities.[2]

We are helping schools address racism and build culturally safe and inclusive learning environments for all First Nations, culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse students, families and carers.

New ways to change attitudes in men and boys that can lead to violence

Violence is most often used by men against women and children.[3] When men are victims of violence, it is usually due to the behaviour of other men.

Harmful gender norms contribute to violence against women. Gender norms are society’s expectations and beliefs about how each gender should behave. Gender norms become embedded at a very young age. They can be reinforced at different life stages through culture and media.

Gender norms are also harmful to men and boys. Rigid ideas about what it means to be a man can pressure men and boys to look, act or behave in ways that damage their self-esteem, mental health, friendships, and intimate relationships.

Many men and boys want to help create gender equality and end violence against women. But some men and boys are reluctant or find it difficult to challenge disrespectful or hostile attitudes (both their own and others) towards women. This can be due to social pressures and fears of judgement, rejection, and exclusion.[4]

Research shows that men’s peer relationships play a critical role in whether and how men and boys conform to or challenge masculine norms.[5]

In addition, boys and young men can be exposed to extremely sexist and violent content on the internet, including violent pornography.

There are opportunities to build men’s willingness, capability and confidence to become allies for change. We will explore targeted strategies that both:

• engage with men and boys as individuals
• address social and cultural factors that create and enable harmful behaviours and attitudes.

Increasing prevention of elder abuse and improving our response to it

Elder abuse can take many forms, including:

• neglect
• emotional abuse
• physical abuse
• sexual abuse
• financial abuse.

The perpetrators are often family members or caregivers, representing a shameful breach of trust.

Elder abuse has unique dynamics and drivers (like ageism) that differ from other forms of family violence. This is why targeted actions are needed to address this form of violence.

Elder abuse is still not well known or understood in Victoria. As Victoria’s population ages, more people will become vulnerable to this form of harm. We must take steps to make sure that older Victorians’ rights, safety and dignity are protected.

As part of this plan, we will expand prevention programs to include elder abuse. This will be supported by existing Elder Abuse Prevention Networks.

We will use existing elder abuse training and resources, such as the Elder Abuse Learning Hub, to build engagement and help improve practice. We will also create a practice development program so more specialist family violence practitioners can identify the signs of elder abuse and take action.