Fast Track is a 10-week online program that supports professionals in the prevention and response sectors advance their careers by building skills in leadership, advocacy, partnerships, and program design.  

A cohort of 24 practitioners completed the course from a range of organisations and regions across Victoria. The final workshop focussed on advocating for change, with Emily Maguire (CEO, Respect Victoria) and Diana Sayed (CEO, Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights) joining us for a panel discussion. The level of engagement throughout the program was high, with participants feeling a real sense of camaraderie and reinvigoration to continue their work in prevention.  

‘I have enjoyed this course immensely! I have not only learned a lot but have practical knowledge and skills to apply to my practice in Family Violence Prevention work and have made some great long-time relationships/networks with amazing people from the course. Thank you so much for the opportunity!’

-Fast Track prevention program participant

The end-of-program forum was a success, attended by Fast Track participants and managers, mentors, and staff from DFFH and Safe and Equal. The forum was an opportunity to connect and celebrate participants’ hard work, with presentations showcasing enhanced knowledge and skills that they can apply in their workplaces. The session begun with a discussion between Tania Farha and participants around leadership, what participants valued from the program, and future hopes for leadership within the sector. The scaffolded learning outcomes covered in each weekly module alongside support from their mentors enabled participants to identify and design a workplace project to implement back in their organisation. Some workplace project logics presented at the forum included: 

• Building a rural gender equity workforce; train the trainer model
• Supporting multicultural and faith communities to prevent family violence, and
• Embedding gender equality into teaching practice for the community education sector.

The Fast Track program is now entering an evaluation phase; we have partnered with Lirata and look forward to conducting a thorough evaluation of the program and sharing the analysis and findings later in the year. Discussions are currently in progress regarding the future funding of Fast Track, to join the waitlist for upcoming prevention leadership development opportunities, please click here.