Our approach
to partnerships
and collaboration

We partner with others to help build community-wide understanding of the nature, impacts and drivers of family violence and gender-based violence and other intersecting forms of oppression and disadvantage. We work to create environments that enable friends and family, and the community, to intervene appropriately to address violence, maintain perpetrator accountability and support victim survivors. Through our comprehensive approaches to workforce development, the creation of strategic resources and a range of other opportunities as they emerge, we work to generate commitment and meaningful action across institutions, settings and systems to effectively prevent and respond to family violence and gendered violence in all its forms.

We are working to build diverse partnerships for effective and sustainable policy and practice across the continuum from prevention to response. We are working to develop and strengthen new and existing relationships to ensure workforce capability building activities and sector building efforts are strategic, cohesive and inclusive.

Existing and potential partners include:

• Family Safety Victoria, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Department of Education, and other key Victorian Government departments and agencies
• statutory bodies and key organisations working across the primary prevention and family violence sectors in Victoria and nationally
• workplaces in priority settings
• organisations working with priority populations and intersecting issues
• organisations working in respectful relationships education.

An intentional approach to partnerships

Partnerships are a complex, ongoing process requiring attention to how organisations work together, not just what they do together.

They require rigour and process in relationship management and design. But they are equally about the individuals working within organisations to exercise intuition and a willingness to sit with the discomfort of constantly shifting dynamics between individual and institutional relationships.

Partnerships, coalitions, and collaboration are key to long term social change. They support collective action, leverage resources, build movements for change, support engagement with diverse communities and diversify funding bases.

Our work is informed by these key resources:

• VicHealth’s partnership analysis tool
• The Partnering Toolbook from The Partnering Initiative
• The Code of Practice for Specialist Family Violence Services

We work with the partnering cycle to establish, build and sustain meaningful collaboration with a variety of organisations. This cycle purposefully aligns with a common program cycle, ensuring that we resource, monitor and nurture our partnerships, as well as our programs.

We are particularly working to strengthen and resource new and existing partnerships with diverse communities to ensure an intersectional approach is embedded our work.

If you would like to discuss partnership opportunities, please contact us.