Speaking at today’s event, Respect Victoria’s Chair, Melanie Eagle said “It has been a year packed with milestones — each one laying the foundations, building towards a future where all Victorians are safe, equal and respected where they live, work, learn and play”.
Also in attendance at today’s event, the Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, The Hon. Gabrielle Williams MP acknowledged the work of Respect Victoria across year one.
“In March 2019, Respect Victoria launched its Strategic Plan 2019–22, which sets out the agency’s bold vision, purpose and five pillars of work to drive evidence-informed primary prevention across Victoria. In June 2019, the organisation also delivered its inaugural Business Plan for 2019–20 creating the blueprint for Respect Victoria over the next 12-months” Minister Williams said.
Establishing Respect Victoria as a Statutory Authority fulfilled Recommendation 188 of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, delivering on the commitments outlined in Free from Violence: Victoria’s strategy to prevent family violence and all forms of violence against women. Respect Victoria leads on two of the five pillars outlined in this strategy – engage and communicate with the community and research and evaluate.
Since its inception, Respect Victoria has delivered three behaviour change campaigns designed at changing the social norms and attitudes that allow all forms of family violence and violence against women to occur — Respect Women: Call It Out (Cafe), Respect Women: Call It Out (Public Transport) and Respect Older People: Call It Out.
Early evaluations undertaken on the Respect Women: ‘Call it Out’ campaigns are already demonstrating that those who viewed the campaign were more likely to call out sexist behaviour among friends or co-workers with the campaign having now reached more than 5 million Victorians.
Over the course of its first year, Respect Victoria has also initiated a range of research and evaluation projects including commencing work on a new Family Violence Data Platform as well as supporting the Office for Women
in the Department of Premier and Cabinet to develop a framework for monitoring and evaluating primary prevention programs.
A full list of Respect Victoria’s 2018-19 achievements and milestones is available online within Respect Victoria’s 2018-19 Annual Report.