This program remains subject to change. Speakers, workshops and much more are continuing to be added.

With 16 parallel sessions and a plenary session to open and close each day, delegates will hear from those leading prevention work across systems and settings, in their communities, and workplaces.  

• Day one we will look at storytelling as a prevention skill we use in our work  
• Day two will dive deeper into stories from prevention in practice  
• Day three will be online workshops

Explore the program below. This program is current as at 5 March 2026. 

START TIME	SESSION
8 – 9:30am	Registration opens
9.30 – 9.45am	Welcome to Country (livestreamed)
9.45 – 9.50am	Conference opening (livestreamed) Marina Carman, Safe and Equal
9.50 – 9.55am	Ministerial welcome (livestreamed) The Hon. Ged Kearney, Commonwealth Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for Prevention of Family Violence
9.55 – 10.05am	Setting the scene (livestreamed) Marina Carman, Safe and Equal
10.05 – 11.15am	Opening plenary (livestreamed) Storytelling on Country: First Nations primary prevention
	Speakers: – Regan Mitchell, Our Watch – Selena O’Meara, Kimberley Aboriginal Women’s Council – Kowana Welsh, Women and Girls Emergency Centre
11.15 – 11.45am	Morning tea
11.45am – 1pm	Session 1 Stories from multicultural and faith-based communities	Session 2 The future is local	Session 3 Stories from the frontline: the trans women and our allies transforming the prevention sector	Session 4 Yarning circle: safety, acceptance, identity on Country
	GenWest Voices of change: stories of community-led prevention, by the community, for the community	Municipal Association of Victoria	Zoe Belle Gender Collective Stories from the front line: the trans women transforming the prevention sector	Restorative Yarns
	Women’s Health in the South East Culture, connection and change: migrant women leading prevention through storytelling
	PRONIA Stories for change in multicultural communities: prevention across generations
1 – 2pm	Lunch (including optional PiP Connect for online audience)
2 – 3.15pm	Session 5 (livestreamed) It began in the West … almost a decade of adaptation, the story of Working Together with Men	Session 6 Young Luv: Aboriginal-led program design	Session 7 Stories of lived and living experience	Session 8 Stories from the frontline of Respectful Relationships education
	RMIT University in collaboration with Melbourne Playback Theatre and Women’s Health Grampians	Djirra	Professor Anastasia Powell The story in-between: centering survivors in primary prevention work	Victorian Department of Education and Respectful Relationships workforc
			Women’s Health Grampians Living expertise as a primary prevention tool: the Intersectionality Workbook and its practical applications
			Anchor Point Therapy & Innovative Resources Shame to safety: stories that prevent family violence
3.15 – 3.45pm	Afternoon tea
3.45 – 4.45pm	Closing plenary (livestreamed) Informing policy making: how and when do stories matter?
	Moderator: Tania Farha, InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence
	Speakers: – Micaela Cronin, Commonwealth Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner – Moo Baulch, Our Watch and WAGEC – Michelle Reddy, Pacific Feminist Fund – Dr Anna Cody, Sex Discrimination Commissioner

START TIME	SESSION
9 – 9.15am	Welcome to Country (livestreamed)
9.15 – 9.20am	Opening day 2 (livestreamed) Chris Mathieson, Safe and Equal
9.20 – 9.30am	Ministerial address (livestreamed) The Hon. Ingrid Stitt, Victorian Minister for Prevention of Family Violence
9.30 – 10.45am	Opening plenary (livestreamed) Stories of gender transformative practice and change
	Moderator: Amelia Ditcham, Safe and Equal
	Speakers: – Professor Steve Roberts, Monash University – Starlady, Zoe Belle Gender Collective – Sarah Drury, Men and Family Centre – Dr Chay Brown, HerStory Consulting
10.45 – 11.15am	Morning tea
11.15am – 12.30pm	Session 9 Stories from prevention workforce development	Session 10 Stories of working with young people in prevention	Session 11	Session 12 Stories from research and program impact
	Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health Amplifying bilingual voices: investing in a critical workforce for community-led prevention	Centre for Multicultural Youth Youth-led change: the Speak Up program and the future of inclusive family violence prevention	Watch this space – new session coming soon.	Respect Victoria Collect once, use often: Insights from secondary analysis of National Community Attitudes Survey (NCAS) data from Victoria
	Our Watch Strong foundations, strong futures: sustaining primary prevention efforts	Our Watch Changing the story for young people: complementary and reinforcing prevention approaches where young people learn, play and engage		Our Watch Sharing stories of change: monitoring population-level progress in primary prevention
	Domestic Violence NSW The NSW Primary Prevention Collaboration: a NSW story of primary prevention practice, advocacy and growth	Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights Navigating Halal and Haram: conversations on relationships, consent and safety with young Muslim women		Jesuit Social Services (The Men’s Project) Unpacking the Adolescent Man Box research and practice implications
	Women with Disabilities Victoria From fear to confidence: embedding gender and disability-inclusive prevention
12.30 – 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30 – 2.45pm	Session 13 More than a setting: primary prevention and digital lives	Session 14 Stories to advance practice in the early years	Session 15 Stories from sport	Session 16 Stories across the prevention continuum
	Respect Victoria	FVREE Gender equity in the early years: engaging parents, educators and children through storytelling	The Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre Why sport? The respect starts here story	Safe and Equal, Jesuit Social Services – The Men’s Project and Women’s Health Grampians Prevention in response: bridging the gap to embed prevention in everyday practice
	The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the Australian National University	Women’s Health Loddon Mallee Raise them equal- gender in the early years	Crash the Boards Primary prevention in sport: Crash the boards	Centre for Non-Violence Frontline Services – the missing link in prevention!
	University of Melbourne	healthAbility Stories of systems change: Baby Makes 3 in action	Rainbow Health Australia Connecting the dots between homophobia, misogyny and transphobia through a focus on sport and masculinities	Settlement Services International Conversations for prevention: transforming social norms in the context of refugee settlement
	Body Safety Australia	Better Health Network Moving beyond neutral: aligning practice with the story you want to tell about gender equity in the early years	CatholicCare NT Playing the long game: sport as a catalyst for community-led prevention
2.45 – 3.15pm	Afternoon tea
3.15 – 4.15pm	Closing plenary (livestreamed) Stories for change: where to next?
	Moderators: Hannah Dwyer and Meghan Cooper, Safe and Equal
	Speakers: – Jay Jones, Body Safety Australia – Sharmilla Falzon, Domestic Violence NSW – Nagma Shaik, Women’s Health and Equality Queensland – Lena Molnar, Women with Disabilities Victoria – Alicia Gibbs, Preventing Violence Together
4.15 – 5.15pm	Ongoing networking, drinks and nibbles

Our quiet and support space will be running across the two days of the conference. Restorative Yarns is honoured to provide the Grounded-on Country wellbeing space.
Read more about the supports offered and the quiet space program here.

On Thursday 26 March, we are excited to bring PreventX 2026 participants three dynamic online workshops designed to help you translate the conference’s key themes into practical tools and strategies. These sessions are interactive, practice-based and deeply connected to our theme: Stories for Change. Spaces are limited! 

• Workshop tickets are sold separately to complement your in-person or livestream tickets.
• Participants can only attend one workshop as tickets are limited in capacity.
• Each workshop can host 30 participants and we ask that no more than two people join from the same organisation.
• Workshops will not be recorded.
• Workshops will run for four hours between 10am – 2pm with a 30-minute lunch break.

Restorative Yarns is a therapeutic consultancy service that weaves old ways and new ways of knowing, being and doing to support healing, wellbeing and recovery. Grounded in a social justice and human rights framework, Restorative Yarns draws on a decolonial approach, acknowledging the ongoing impacts of colonisation while centering cultural wisdom and culturally safe, trauma-informed care. They offer a range of services including consultancy, counselling, supervision and therapeutic practices designed to empower individuals and communities through culturally responsive support and meaningful healing. 

At PreventX 2026, Restorative Yarns is honoured to provide the Grounded on Country wellbeing space – a supportive area where delegates can pause, ground, reflect and connect throughout the event. This space, held by clinicians, is available for people to yarn together, sit quietly, breathe, or rest in a way that feels right to them, acknowledging that everyone cares for themselves differently and that wellbeing looks different for each person. 

Restorative Yarns are also available to support delegates experiencing distress or in need of one-on-one support throughout the conference.  

Facilitators:

Sam Ivancsik is a proud LGBTQIA+ SB Wiradjuri woman from the South Coast of NSW (she/her). Sam brings over a decade of experience working across child protection, domestic and family violence, sexual assault and supporting children and young people affected by problematic and harmful behaviours. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work and integrates somatic-based practices and technologies like biofeedback into her therapeutic work, alongside culturally informed care. 

Locky Bygrave (he/him) is a proud LGBTQIA+ SB Kamilaroi/Gamilaroi man and First Nations Social Worker with extensive clinical experience across the lifespan. Locky’s practice centres strengths-based, culturally responsive, and trauma- and violence-informed approaches, with a deep commitment to enhancing wellbeing and supporting those impacted by complex trauma and sexual harm. 

Together, Sam and Locky hold this space with care, cultural awareness and gentle support, – inviting delegates to enter Grounded on Country when they need a moment of rest, reflection, somatic grounding or connection. 

	Tuesday 24 March	Wednesday 25 March
START TIME	SESSION	SESSION
9am – 1pm	(No specific activity offered while Restorative Yarns are delivering a parallel session.)	Collective care yarn Collective Care Yarn is a facilitated reflective space using Sacred Embers cards to explore the ethics and values that guide our work. Through shared reflection and conversation, participants are invited to consider how collective care— rather than individual endurance—can be a meaningful way of resisting burnout. This activity centres slowing down, listening and making sense of our experiences alongside others. The Sacred Embers prompts support discussion around responsibility, limits, solidarity and sustainability in this work, with an emphasis on what it means to care for ourselves and each other within shared systems and contexts. The focus is not on problem-solving or productivity, but on connection, reflection and reaffirming values that make this work possible to continue.
2 – 4.45pm	Creating weighted cushions  In this hands-on workshop, participants will create their own weighted cushion using fabric and filling of their choice. The process involves measuring, assembling and filling the cushion to a preferred weight, allowing for personal customisation. Weighted cushions can provide steady, grounding pressure and are often used as a sensory or somatic support. This session focuses on the practical making process while offering space for participants to notice how weight, texture and pressure feel in their body. No sewing experience is required. All materials are provided and participants can work at their own pace.	‘What I want to remember’  This activity invites delegates to write a short letter to themselves, using guided prompts to reflect on what they want to remember from this conference. The prompts encourage reflection on key learnings, stories for change shared across the two days, and the hopes and possibilities these have sparked for what primary prevention of gendered violence could look like moving forward. Participants are invited to name what they want to carry with them – values, commitments, questions, or dreams and how they hope this conference will continue to shape their thinking and practice over time. Letters can be taken home by participants or collected and held by the Safe and Equal team to be posted to participants six months after the conference. This offers a way of reconnecting with reflections and hopes in the future. Participation is optional and there is no expectation to share what you write.
4.45 – 5pm	Winding down  A gentle end-of-day space facilitated by the team, offering guided somatic exercises and light stretching to help the body settle. Participants are invited to slow their pace, release accumulated tension, and transition out of the day in a calm, supported way. No experience is required.	Winding down  The day will close with a guided meditation facilitated by clinicians, offering a quiet space to settle the body and mind after the conference. This session is designed to support rest, integration of the day’s content and as a gentle transition out of the program. The meditation will be accessible and optional, with participants invited to engage in a way that feels comfortable for them.

The conference in 2026 will be held face-to-face in Melbourne, with online components. We are inviting abstracts for parallel sessions to be delivered as a part of the face-to-face conference.  

PreventX: Stories for Change is about sharing the stories of primary prevention and how storytelling is a powerful and effective way of creating and demonstrating change. Storytelling is also a useful way to connect with people and Country. First Nations communities are the original storytellers in so-called Australia. Stories for Change is about recognising and celebrating the range of ways in which primary prevention is practiced and inspiring the future. Equally, it is about surfacing the stories of change that need to be shared and understood from a range of views and experiences. Through the art of storytelling, PreventX will tell us about the people, places and processes that are at the core of primary prevention.