Jesuit Social Services has made a combined submission to inform the Second Action Plans for both the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children and the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse.
Through the lens of violence prevention work with men and boys, our central proposition is that – across both Action Plans – Australia must strengthen primary prevention efforts while building the missing early intervention, response and healing capacity needed to act earlier, respond effectively and reduce the recurrence of violence and abuse.
Our submission focuses on the policy settings and system changes required to scale up work with men and boys across the violence prevention continuum from primary prevention through to early intervention, response and recovery, while also highlighting gaps and examples of promising practice from our work and experience. We argue that, to make meaningful and lasting progress towards ending family and sexual violence and child sexual abuse, the Second Action Plans must commit governments to:
- Build the system architecture necessary to expand, coordinate and enhance the effectiveness of work with men and boys, including building the evidence base and the capabilities of workforces;
- Prevent and respond to online harms;
- Strengthen primary prevention and continue to innovate and refine the approach;
- Invest in healing and recovery for children and young people who have experienced family violence and child abuse;
- Scale up early intervention with men and boys at higher risk of using violence or showing early signs of causing harm; and
- Expand options for responding to people who use violence.
