Willing, Capable, and Confident – Building Respect and Equality in the Loddon Mallee
In June, Women’s Health Loddon Mallee (WHLM) hosted our CARE Forum 2025, where we explored CARE Partner case studies and unpacked the key findings from the Willing, Capable and Confident- Men, Masculinities and the Prevention of Violence Against Women report with Tarang Chawla and other leading violence prevention experts, including Hazel Donley (Respect Victoria) and Dr Innocent Mwatsiya (La Trobe University).
In this recording of our online forum, we:
- Hear from CARE Partners as they present local case study examples of navigating community engagement (and resistance) and promoting staff engagement to activate Gender Equality Action Plans.
- Examine key learnings from the 2023/2024 annual CARE Partner survey results.
- Explore Respect Vic’s Willing Capable and Confident report as a tool to reframe the Man Box statistics and reflect on men and boy’s roles as gender equality advocates.
The CARE Forum brings CARE partners and allies together to share knowledge, skills, and collective approaches to ending violence against women in the Loddon Mallee.
Watch the event recording:
About the Speakers:
Tarang Chawla
Tarang Chawla is a speaker, writer and recovering lawyer who serves as Commissioner at the Victorian Multicultural Commission and is the co-founder of Not One More Niki, a grassroots non-profit working to end men’s violence against women named in memory of his younger sister, Nikita, who was murdered by her partner in 2015. Tarang is also a sessional academic at Monash University. He wrote, produced and hosted the acclaimed podcast There’s No Place Like Home, and advised both state and federal governments on family violence reform and effectively engaging men in gender equality.
Hazel Donley
Hazel Donley (she/her) is a Senior Advisor of Research and Translation at Respect Victoria. Hazel has worked across several projects investigating men’s experiences of social pressures to conform to masculine norms and what this means for the prevention of gender-based violence, including The Man Box 2024 study and Willing, capable and confident: men, masculinities and the prevention of violence against women. She is currently leading research exploring how to conceptualise the role of social media algorithms and online misogyny in young people’s perpetration of gender-based violence, with a focus on AI-generated image-based abuse.
Dr Innocent Mwatsiya
Dr Innocent Mwatsiya is a Research Fellow with the Reducing Gender-Based Violence Research Group, at the Violet Vines Marshman Centre for Rural Health Research in the La Trobe Rural Health School. Innocent is currently conducting research in the Partners in Prevention of Sexual Violence project, which received funding from the Federal Government to evaluate community-led primary and secondary prevention of sexual violence interventions across Australia.
CARE Partner Survey Results:
Visit the link below to view an infographic summary of the results shared from the 2023/2024 Annual CARE Partnership Survey.
The following resources were cited throughout the CARE Forum discussion:
Project Rockit | PROJECT ROCKI
Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Mapping Project | Respect Victoria
The Man Box 2024 – Jesuit Social Services
If you are experiencing violence, concerned for your safety, or you need support or advice, reach out to a specialist family violence support service: https://www.respectvictoria.vic.gov.au/crisis-and-support-organisations
CARE Partnership:
If you would like to find out more about joining the CARE Partnership head to our website here CARE Partnership – Women’s Health Loddon Mallee or reach out to us via care@whlm.org.au
Tell us what you think:
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