This year’s Partners in Prevention annual forum looks at the implications of new media technologies for both contributing to violence and creating opportunities for prevention. Registration deadline extended to 5 August 2010!

Keynote speaker:

Dr Anastasia Powell (LaTrobe University)  ‘Safe Sext’? Young people, technology and sexual violence

Keep reading

Posted on Behalf of Paul Zappa, Victorian Women’s Trust:

The Victorian Women’s Trust are inviting 2 male staff from all Victorian Secondary Schools and Community Agencies to free training session for our Be The Hero! Program.

Be The Hero! is a free interactive web based program that teaches young men (15-16yrs) about respectful relationships and is a useful contribution to the national campaign to reduce violence against women.

Did you know that intimate partner violence is responsible for more ill health and premature death in Victorian women under the age of 45 than any other of the well known risk factors, including high blood pressure, obesity and smoking?

(Vic Health Promotion Foundation 2004)

We want you to help us empower young men in your school or local community organisation with the knowledge and skills required to actively contribute to a reduction in the violence that many women, girls and their families are experiencing in their lives.

Attached are all of the dates for the 90 minute training sessions that we are providing free of charge across 42 Victorian locations. The program will also be delivered in the major national capital cities.

The training runs from 3.30pm to 5.00pm to maximize the ability of staff to get to a venue close to them without major disruption to their contact hours with students.

We encourage you to fill out the attached registration form to confirm your place in the training program.

BTH registration form – Metropolitan Melbourne

BTH info form

Technologies and Sexual Violence: A forum on young people, technologies and promoting respectful sexual citizenship.

The use of technology in the commission or recording of sexual offences or in promoting sexual violence is an emerging and challenging issue. How we frame this issue is central to the development of responses and strategies for prevention. Keep reading

A forum run by the Melbourne Centre for Adolescent Health. Visit their website for details.

This half-day forum will provide a comprehensive overview on this important and challenging topic Keep reading

There are so many varied and interesting violence against women prevention projects involved in the PiP network that the May meeting was devoted to sharing information. Network members brought along fliers and materials, stories of triumph and challenge to share with their fellow network members.

• Download May meeting notes (PDF 132kb)
• Download CASA House/ DEECD demonstration project update (PDF 342kb)



Our February PiP meeting was a facilitated discussion of best practice and the recently released Respectful Relationships Education in Secondary Schools report. In particular we will be looked at the 5 criteria for good practice outlined in chapter 3. The opinion post Best practice is a state of mind provided some food for thought about the limitations of best practice as a static concept.

• Download notes from the February 2010 meeting (PDF 147kb)
• An example of a logic model, developed for the PiP project (PDF 161kb)

2010 PiP meetings will be from 1-4 pm in the Jenny Florence Room (3rd floor rm 1) at Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne on

• Thursday 18 February
• Tuesday 11 May
• Wednesday 11 August (PiP forum at Queen Victoria Women’s Centre)
• Thursday 11 November

Topics and speakers will be confirmed closer to the day.

Looked at the recently released state government plan to prevent violence against women, A Right to Respect, with particular focus on the education setting. Lara Fergus from the Office of Women’s Policy gave an overview of the state plan. Then David Billimoria and Erika Turner spoke to the Department of Education and Early Childhood’s plans in response to the Respectful Relationships Education in Schools report.

• Download Lara’s presentation of the State Plan (Powerpoint)
• Download December 2009 meeting notes (PDF 95kb)