While change and reform are coming in the domestic and family violence sector, the safety of women and children is still violated every day. NSW is the largest state in Australia with the highest population densities in its cities and across its vast regional areas. The men's behaviour change sector in NSW is relatively new and collaborative work across sectors requires ongoing development. While work has begun to increase workforce and sector development initiatives around responding to men within the broader service system, there remain gaps in awareness and the system is largely uncoordinated. Awareness of sexual, domestic and family violence has become more of a public concern and yet communities remain uninformed of the ‘not so recognisable’ coercively controlling behaviours or how to repond to family violence within their communities. There are huge gaps in service provision across the state that prevent us from being able to adequately and safely respond to men who are using family violence.

No to Violence has toured NSW regions and listened to people working on the frontline of family violence to identify how we can achieve safety for women, children and families.

No to Violence is only one part of the domestic and family violence sector, working alongside others providing women and children’s services. Evidence shows that working directly with men to change their behaviour can contribute to the increased safety of women and children. Through our telephone referral service, we refer men into behaviour change programs that have been shown to be effective in mitigating the very worst of the harm of family violence.

This Listening Tour has proved an invaluable experience for No to Violence:

• It identified a genuine appetite for collaboration amongst key community service providers
• It highlighted the skills and expertise of these groups, people who know their community best, and can readily identify opportunities for enhanced service delivery
• It fostered in all of us a strong, shared expectation for services to continually improve, so that increased collaboration may result in behavioural change and increased safety for families.

This report details the specific ‘asks’ which NTV has of candidates in the NSW election.