The PVAW Workforce Capacity-Building Project is a professional development project funded by the Victorian Government.

This two-year project works with intermediate and advanced practitioners in the Prevention of Violence Against Women (PVAW) field. The project grew from the Government’s recognition of the complex skill-set required to deliver PVAW projects and activities, and the need to ensure a strong workforce exists to effectively deliver initiatives, as well as to support and mentor new workers into the field.

The project focuses on continuing key strategies that have successfully sustained and developed this workforce over previous years, as well as ensuring new strategies are developed to align with the Victorian Government’s Preventing Family Violence & Violence Against Women Capability Framework. This framework articulates and maps the knowledge and skills required by workers in this field, from entry-level to advanced leadership roles. It was developed in consultation with PVAW workers across Victoria, and it provides a comprehensive structure against which worker development needs can be measured into the future.

The project’s main target group is intermediate and advanced PVAW practitioners who are currently working within a women’s health or similar service. This bulk of the workforce have been instrumental over several years in delivering PVAW community projects and in supporting new workers in the field, and make up a critical mass for affecting change within the workforce and field.

To achieve its aims, the following key activities are included in the project:

• Action to Prevent Violence Against Women website – actionpvaw.org.au seeks to centralise and link regional work on PVAW, to promote coordination, partnerships and increased involvement. It provides statistics on PVAW, a resource Library, e-learning modules, and colourful snapshots of regional and statewide projects underway.
• Intersectional skill development – through a range of activities and partnerships with experts, ensuring that the PVAW workforce is knowledgeable and skilled in ensuring an intersectional approach across all elements of their PVAW practice. This includes across all populations and groups in Victoria, including people with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities, immigrant and refugee communities, LGBTIQ communities, rural communities and across all age groups.
• Community of Practice – for PVAW workers within the women’s health sector to come together to share practice experiences and knowledge, troubleshoot complex practice issues, and prevent worker isolation and burnout.
• Orientation to PVAW resources – a set of written, online and training-based resources developed for advanced practitioners to use with new and emerging workers in the field to orient them to PVAW practice fundamentals, including an online e-learning module.
• Practice Tipsheets – short resources that gather current practice knowledge on critical topics in PVAW, presented as succinct tipsheets for workers.
• Common Workforce Development Plan – a central plan to align workforce development across the nine regions of Victoria. This plan supports alignment of the numerous and diverse workforce development activities delivered by women’s health services to entry-level and less experienced workers in generalist organisations.
• Forums, events, activities – delivery of a statewide forum and smaller events to bring practitioners together around practice development.

All capacity building resources are available from GEN VIC’s prevention of violence against women website, www.actionpvaw.com.au.

For our most recent PVAW capacity building forum, Under the Radar click here