Summary & Recommendations

What is the change we need?

The members of the VPGB Sexual Violence Prevention Sub Committee identified six priorities for change, based on the findings from the survey:

Engage men and young men in prevention. Sexual violence is not a women’s issue. It is a community issue. Men and boys have a critical role to play in SV prevention.
Change cultural beliefs and attitudes about sexual violence such as: victims are to blame, men cannot control their sexuality, it is better to remain silent than seek help, and victims need to ‘get over it’. Replace myths with good information about sex and sexual violence.
Overcome secrecy and talk about this issue – we need to ‘normalize’ talking about sexuality and sexual violence issues, address the stigma and shame surrounding SV, and understand how we are desensitized towards sexual violence through its portrayal in media and social media as well as through acceptance of powerful myths and attitudes.
Understand and educate everyone about consent, respecting ‘no’, and that ‘no’ is an option for women.
Engage the public and services in broad, evidence based prevention strategies to address the pervasive nature of sexual violence in our communities.
Improve the service response for victims and offenders. Use trauma and violence informed approaches and prevent revictimization, improve services and supports for men and boys, improve the response of the criminal justice system, focus on both crisis and longer term services and support that both victims and offenders need, make sure everyone knows about community services, how to access them, and what to expect, include and support input and direction from people with lived experience of sexual violence in the system response.