Bringing the work to life
Shifting power through a whole‑of‑community response to gender-based violence
Respect Ballarat | Ballarat Community Foundation
In early 2024, a traumatised Ballarat community – reeling from the violent deaths of three local women within months – took to the streets to demand action to end gendered violence.
At the time, Ballarat recorded family violence rates around 60% above the Victorian average. Prevention efforts were fragmented, opportunities for women’s voices to shape solutions were limited and public campaigns were often short‑term and broad‑based. Women continued to experience violence alongside homelessness, housing insecurity and economic dependence.
The community’s call for change led to Respect Ballarat, a collaboration led by Respect Victoria and supported by the Ballarat Foundation.
The initiative made Ballarat the first Australian community to pilot a Saturation Model – a coordinated, place‑based approach grounded in international evidence that prioritises sustained, reinforcing prevention messages across a geographic area.
Respect Ballarat is collective and co‑designed, bringing together philanthropy, local government, services, businesses, educators, sporting clubs and community leaders.
Prevention messages are delivered consistently across trusted local settings, followed by facilitated, face‑to‑face conversations embedded as ongoing dialogue rather than one‑off engagements. The Ballarat Foundation has played a pivotal convening role, mobilising social capital and relationships, aligning partners and advocating upward to state government using community‑generated insight.
Unlike earlier campaigns, Respect Ballarat is guided by a 10‑year vision. So far, 11 grants have been awarded for prevention and early-intervention projects across schools, sports clubs, TAFE colleges, construction businesses, parenting organisations, culturally diverse communities and LGBTIQA+ youth.
While only one year into the initiative, early outcomes show strong community uptake and growing government interest in replication, potentially elevating the model to a systems-level response. Most importantly, power is being shifted: women’s lived experience is now informing decision‑making, messaging and advocacy.
Women are reporting increased confidence, visibility and agency, while centring relationships and shared responsibility means the broader community is reimagining safety, respect and gender equality in practice.
The Ballarat Foundation and Respect Victoria are working towards securing up to $30 million in funds to ensure the project can be delivered through a place-based leadership and collaboration.
Doorways to the Future
Sydney Women’s Fund | Sydney Community Foundation
Women in Liverpool face compounded gender inequalities shaped by poverty, migration, caring responsibilities and exclusion from decision-making. Structural barriers, including lack of English proficiency, digital exclusion, non-recognition of overseas qualifications, unpaid caring roles and high levels of insecure or unaffordable housing limit women’s economic participation.
Cost-of-living pressures push many women into financial stress and food insecurity, while social isolation, fear of authority and racism reduce civic participation. Women report “consultation fatigue” – where they are repeatedly asked to share experiences but rarely see how their input informs policy or programs.
Doorways to the Future adopts a place-based, community-led approach grounded in listening, co-design and shared power. Over six months in 2025, Sydney Women’s Fund (SWF) engaged more than 100 women and 35 local organisations in culturally safe consultations. These insights informed the creation of a Community Collective made up of local organisations and community members, including migrant and refugee women.
Through structured co-design workshops, the Collective moved from insight to action, identifying three priority initiatives – cost of living, employment and housing support, before collectively deciding to pilot the cost-of-living program, Our Table Liverpool. The program uses cooking as a trusted connection point to the support the women need.
The community-owned initiative has shifted decision-making power to women by embedding them in program design, governance via a Community Governance Group and future planning. The women shape priorities, guide delivery and identify new initiatives. This community-led model replaces extractive consultation with genuine authority and leadership.
While women involved have gained confidence, connection and practical support, the program is grounded in respecting the knowledge already embedded in the community. Through Our Table Liverpool, women will build on this with financial skills, reduced isolation and increased access to pathways for further employment, leadership and social enterprise. Importantly, the women are now recognised as experts in their own lives – and as leaders shaping Liverpool’s future.
“Doorways to the Future is built on what women in Liverpool have said, shared and asked for. Sydney Women’s Fund is committed to honouring that trust; moving from listening to lasting change, alongside the community every step of the way.”
[The program is the beginning of a longer-term investment in local partnerships and community-led solutions in Liverpool by the SWF and was supported by major sponsors Judith Neilson Foundation and Snow Foundation.]