Promising practices in workplace and organisational approaches for the prevention of violence against women

Established in 2013, Our Watch is a national organisation whose role it is to advocate for and drive change in the culture, systems, behaviours and attitudes that lead to violence against women and their children. This report has been designed to inform Our Watch's planning and program development in one sub-theme of this important work - namely workplace and organisational approaches to support the prevention of violence against women (PVAW). The vast majority of existing program development and other prevention activities undertaken regarding PVAW in Australian workplaces are yet to be documented. In order to document practice in this area consultative interviews were undertaken with a number of key stakeholders. The case studies described in this report provide evidence of promising practice and other key themes from the stakeholder interviews, including the need to break down the idea of workplaces as homogenous and the diverse range of models, approaches and work in the sector which speak of the heterogeneity of and in workplaces. The case studies also confirm that well-designed programs aim to encourage local ownership and that there is a need to 'gain traction' if programs are to be successfully implemented. Overall several points of entry in programmatic work were identified, including responding to and preventing violence and promoting gender equity and cultures of respect.