Program description
The Ballarat community took to the streets in 2024 in a powerful protest against gendered violence, following the disappearance of Samantha Murphy and the deaths of local women Rebecca Young and Hannah McGuire. The Victorian Government responded to this call for change and announced $9.8 million over four years to fund the design and delivery of an evidence-informed, place-based ‘saturation’ approach to preventing gendered violence.
The Respect Ballarat initiative links mutually reinforcing prevention and early intervention approaches to ensure that places, settings and communities within Ballarat reinforce the same attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that prevent gendered violence and support equality and respect. Respect Victoria coordinates the initiative, building on the work of the existing CoRE Alliance led by Women’s Health Grampians, to bring together many parts of the community including sports clubs, schools, workplaces, health services, councils and community organisations, in a coordinated approach.
Evidence shows that when prevention is delivered in an integrated way across social ecology, it has significantly more impact than small, time-limited, standalone programs. It is groundbreaking for Victoria to be resourced to deliver the breadth, depth and intensity of work needed for an integrated approach, with a rigorous evaluation.
The purpose is not only to reduce rates of gendered violence in the long term, but to demonstrate that meaningful, measurable change is possible through a prevention-focused approach that is designed in collaboration with the community.
Current activities
Respect Victoria has been listening to and building necessary trust with Ballarat community members since the initiative was announced in May 2024, meeting with more than 250 people and 65 organisations or networks. This consultation process is essential to the development of the model and was conducted with local groups and networks, including with First Nations peoples, women with disability, and a community co-design working group.
Respect Victoria is working with organisations and people across the Ballarat community to collaboratively design the first iteration of the initiative taking place in the latter half of 2025. This process includes developing a theory of change, establishing a governance framework, and identifying the right mix of activities to drive and reinforce change. A robust monitoring, evaluation and learning framework will track progress and impact.
Next steps
Respect Victoria will work closely with the Ballarat community over the next three years to implement, evaluate and refine the model, deepening understanding of what is required to prevent gendered violence. Outcomes and evidence generated through Respect Ballarat will support both future practice and state and federal investment in prevention.