Leaders in domestic violence prevention on the Border have come together to make a plan to stop abuse from occurring, before it turns deadly.
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In what has been described as a “world first”, about 40 representatives from health organisations are spending Wednesday and Thursday working on a joint initiative at a forum in Wodonga.
Deakin University population health Professor Steven Allender, who was facilitating the forum at The Cube, said one of the main topics was preventing violence between partners, by teaching young boys to be respectful from a young age.
“Wodonga Council and the Wodonga community are really doing world-leading work here in bringing together all parts of the community to say how do we work best together to accelerate the good work to get a much better response,” he said.
“It’s finding new and better solutions that other communities are yet to think about.”
Women's Health Goulburn North East health promotion officer Julie Tyler said domestic violence came out of unequal power between men and women, but was preventable by changing attitudes in the long term.
“It’s not just the individual level, it’s attitudes and beliefs that are at a community level and a society level that all contribute to family violence,” she said.
“Most people want to engage in it and it’s got an increased profile since the Royal Commission into Family Violence, but what we need is an increased understanding about what prevents violence.
“It’s around those aspects of respecting women, just those things like wolf-whistling along the road - that shows disrespect and if the community condones and laughs at that, then everybody thinks that’s OK.”
Wodonga Council hosted the forum as the first step in using $130,000 awarded under the Victorian government’s community partnerships for primary prevention grant. An action plan will developed by mid-2018.
Mayor Anna Speedie said the goal was to engage the community in how to stop violence before it occurs.
“Family violence is a global, social issue about gender inequality and it has devastating impacts,” she said.
“It destroys families and undermines communities.”