The conversation

Community and stakeholder consultation and action planning took place over a six month period between March and August 2021.

The consultations were guided by the Victorian Government’s Safe and Strong: A Victorian gender equality strategy, Free from Violence: Victoria’s strategy to prevent family violence and all forms of violence against women and Ending Family Violence: Victoria’s plan for change.

The Action Plan focuses on addressing the underlying causes of violence against women and applying an intersectional approach which recognises that multiple forms of discrimination and power imbalances occur and intersect.

Gathering insights

A project steering group was established to oversee the development of the Plan. This group was made up of senior representatives across Council, Women’s Health Victoria, Gender Equity West, OurWatch, Respect Victoria and the Municipal Association of Victoria.

The Action Plan has been developed in consultation with relevant CoM internal branches, PVAW and gender equity experts, service providers, victim survivor advocates and community and business leaders.

The draft Action Plan was available for public comment from 22 September to 12 October 2021.

During the public consultation period, we asked survey participants to:

  • Identify which theme/s were most important in addressing or responding to the underlying drivers of violence against women.
  • Identify to what extent do they agree that the themes and proposed high levels actions will help address or respond to the underlying drivers of violence against women.
  • Suggest other themes or actions for inclusion in the 2022-2023 Action Plan.

Who we reached

125

survey respondents

490

website visitors

What we heard

The majority of survey respondents (84 per cent) strongly agree or agree that the themes and proposed high level actions will help address and/or respond to the underlying drivers of violence against women.

Of the four themes in the Action Plan,

  • 75 per cent of respondents identified theme 3 Engage men and boys to shift unhealthy norms of masculinity and condoning violence and
  • 60 per cent identified theme 2 Promote the safety of women and girls in our communities and public spaces as most important in addressing and responding to the underlying drivers of violence against women.
A summary of the feedback can be found on pages 23-29 of the Future Melbourne Committee report (PDF 4 MB).

The feedback received included:

Impact

Feedback from the consultation process has informed amendments to the Final Plan and future actions for year two (2022-23) and year three (2023-24).

Actions are updated annually to reflect emerging issues and feedback from community and our partners.

A broad range of community members including trans and gender diverse people and those with lived experience will be engaged in the implementation efforts to realise the outcomes of this plan.

Prevention of Violence Against Women Action Plan