At the launch of Stopping Family Violence in May the organisation released their first issues paper ‘Family and domestic violence perpetrator programs. Issues paper of current and emerging trends, developments and expectations’.
The paper represents the first attempt to, in detail and at a national level, grapple with the wide range of issues influencing how the Men’s Behaviour Change Program field might evolve in the years to come, so that we can make use of the current spotlight to push the work forward in effective directions Its 11 chapters all open doorways into a range of considerations that readers can delve into, and then refer to the references to explore in more detail.
The Issues Paper draws attention to current and emerging patterns, trends, developments and push-and-pull factors over the following areas:
- Philosophical debates and tensions
- Expectations from funders, and the shifting funding environment
- The place and role of perpetrator programs within integrated/coordinated community response, and the systemic factors that influence this work
- Research and program evaluation – the struggle to prove the worth of these programs
- Adapting interventions for different ‘cohorts’ of perpetrators
- Responding to risk ‘vs’ changing men
- Program provider accountabilities
- Supporting program providers to become compliance ready (for auditing/accreditation per minimum standards) and research ready (for program evaluation).
- Practice issues in a range of areas
- Developing a sufficiently skilled, diverse and sized workforce
- The relevance of broader community responses and primary prevention to program provision.
While of benefit to government policy workers, funders and researchers, the paper was written with practitioners, program coordinators and service managers firmly in mind. The trends explored in the paper have significant implications for day-to-day program delivery.
A copy of the paper can be downloaded from the Stopping Family Violence website – download issues paper
