A ‘saturation model’ means that all the different connections someone has with their community (where they live, work, learn and play) influence and reinforce attitudes, behaviours, norms and systems related to preventing gendered violence. When prevention actions shaped by the community ‘saturate’ an area, and are connected and reinforce each other, evidence shows they have significantly more impact.
This approach requires actions to be concentrated and coordinated. An example of this is education supporting positive attitudes shaped around gender equality and respect for young people in school. While young people may receive the right messages in the classroom, those messages and attitudes need to be reinforced and supported when they go home, when they play sports on the weekend, and when they spend time with peers.
A place-based approach to prevention, like a saturation model, allows for prevention efforts to be embedded across systems, organisations, and communities.
| A saturation model is: | A saturation model isn’t: |
| A coordinated approach built from many prevention efforts | A single program or one-size-fits-all solution |
| Focused on a specific place or group of people | Just about services or programs - It includes all community members having a role in prevention |
| Designed to be developed and adapted over time | A final or fixed plan. It’s designed to adapt as community evolves |
| Grounded in local ways of being, knowing and doing while also drawing on prevention evidence | A top down model. It’s shaped by community voices and experiences |
| Creating new narratives and conversations, building community confidence to act to prevent gendered violence | A policy or strategy document |
What makes a community saturation model work?
Evidence on saturation and place-based models, as well as co-design and community feedback, have identified the following features as critical to the success of a saturation model:
- A collaborative approach: ensure communities are involved at all stages of the work, and to build a transparent, positive relationship between government and local community
- Mutual reinforcement: outcomes can’t be achieved by simply increasing the amount of prevention work happening in Ballarat; instead, there must be a mix of quality, targeted, and strategic efforts across systems and settings that reinforce each other
- Creativity, innovation and community mobilisation: trial new ways of delivering prevention and early intervention while also strengthening existing work
- A phased, iterative approach: adapt to the needs of community as they change over time; strategies for change are designed, implemented, and tested, with learnings applied and continuous improvements made to the model along the way
- Leaders who are committed to learning: modelling and supporting change in their organisations and communities
- Work across the family violence continuum: supporting early intervention and prevention work, in collaboration and partnership with response services and prevention organisations
- Enabling prevention infrastructure: core elements of prevention infrastructure need to be in place to adequately support and sustain the intensity of effort required for impact
- Quality principles: ensure strategies for change are evidence-informed, to support impact at every phase of the project
- Sustainability: ensure systems, organisations and communities are resourced to carry the model forward.
For more information, read the international evidence review of saturation approaches to preventing violence.