Welcome to the new edition of our member-only newsletter. I write at a time I know a large part of the sector is exhausted, working differently, and in innovative ways, to support men to change their behaviour in news ways due to the pandemic.

It is important to note our members in Victoria, who are in the fourth week of increased restrictions – stage 4 in Melbourne and stage 3 in regional Victoria. Whilst the trend is going the right direction, we know COVID-19 will be with us for a long time. The recent announcement from the Victorian Government includes funding to better support the sector to adapt to COVIDsafe plans with details imminent. This comes after announcements in New South Wales and South Australia for the sector that works with men who use violence.

With words like ‘innovate’ and ‘pivot’ becoming even more regular in our discourse, I wanted to highlight the opportunities to contribute to research. The Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre has partnered with NTV to hold focus groups, to embed our sectors’ experience of the COVID-19 pandemic into research (read more). There are also a number of other opportunities arising to contribute to research, which we will keep the sector abreast of in coming weeks and months – although these times are difficult, there is some solace in developing new ways of working which could change the way we deliver interventions in the future.

In this edition of our members’ eNews, we also look at new research from ANROWS exploring the client-worker relationship in men’s behaviour change programs, a look into our Facebook LIVE panel from last month, and we hear the story of Maree Corbo who has spent the last six years working in communities in central Australia and has just introduced the updated ‘Central Australia Minimum Standards for Men’s Behaviour Change Programs’.

Until next time,

Jacqui