Primary Prevention

Celebrating gender and sexuality diversity, challenging stereotypes and relationship expectations

This year saw the completion and evaluation of The Breaking the Binary Code project, a family violence primary prevention initiative proudly funded by the Victorian Government under the Free from Violence Fund.

Led in partnership by The SAFV Centre, Barwon Adolescent Taskforce (BATForce), City of Greater Geelong, and Creative Geelong Inc, the project worked with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse, intersex, queer, asexual and questioning (LGBTIQA+) young people and stakeholders, focused on challenging binary constructs of gender and sexuality, raising awareness and understanding of healthy, safe and respectful relationships and developing key messages to support conversations about gender and stereotypes; with the aim of the project to prevent family violence in the LGBTIQA+ communities.

The project created safe spaces for young LGBTIQA+ people and their community to share their lived experiences and to explore examples, ideas and concepts of positive non-binary relationships that are healthy, safe and respectful. Project staff captured this valuable information through surveys and consultations held in schools, at community events and working groups.

The Breaking the Binary Code project worked to highlight the impact of family violence within the LGBTIQA+ community in the Barwon region. The results of the 112 completed surveys highlighted that 36 per cent of participants had experienced intimate partner violence and 32 per cent had experienced family violence from a family member. Of the people who completed the survey, 62 per cent of people identified in the LGBTIQA+ communities.

We proudly launched the summary report online with the support of the Honourable Gabrielle Williams, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence.

The summary report and a series of creative resources – Zines – created by wonderful local artists, developed with LGBTIQA+ young people and their families, were developed to encourage conversations about gender and sexuality that will support healthy, safe and respectful relationships free from violence.

As we move into 2020-21, we will take the learnings from this project to further strengthen our support of the LGBTIQA+ community, focusing on the prevention of family violence.

Building capacity of primary prevention practitioners

In its third year, the Primary Prevention Community of Practice, led by The SAFV Centre in partnership with Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West, has continued to grow and support primary prevention workforce development, upskilling, sharing of information and networking. This year, the Community of Practice facilitated a number of presentations and regionally focused discussions on enhancing and supporting the development of primary prevention practitioners.

This year’s presentations included:

• LGBTIQA+ and Inclusive Practice in Primary Prevention presented by Hilary Knack from Our Watch, and Bonnie Loft from The SAFV Centre
• Gender, People and Place presented by Dr Nicole Kahlms, Associate Professor, XYX Lab
• Regional perspectives and actions featuring panel discussion with Dr Bree Gorman, Deakin University; Ash Jones, Barwon Community Legal Service; and Ash Pike, Respectful Relationships, Department of Education and Training; along with a presentation by Jacinta Walsh, Health Services Alliance.
• Preventing violence against women during COVID-19 presented by Tanja Kovac, CEO, Gender Equity Victoria