evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Victoria's Men's Behaviour Change Program Network

Australia · Melbourne · See the Australia profile · See the Melbourne profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 26% 85/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

No to Violence coordinates 150+ accredited Men's Behaviour Change Program providers in Victoria, Australia. A 2016 Monash University study found men's violent behaviour halved right after the programme, falling further at 1-2 years.

-50 %
Reduction in men's reported violent behaviour (all 15 items), immediately post-programme (2016)
Victoria's Men's Behaviour Change Program Network

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
No to Violence (Men's Referral Service)
Period
1990s–present
Keywords
gender-based violence, family violence, perpetrator intervention, social services, criminal justice

Context

No to Violence is the peak body for organisations delivering Men's Behaviour Change Programs (MBCPs) to men who use family violence in Victoria, Australia. It coordinates a network of more than 150 accredited member organisations and runs the statewide Men's Referral Service, a confidential telephone line for men seeking help to stop using violence.

Objectives

To reduce men's use of family violence through structured, group-based behaviour-change programmes for both court-mandated and self- or family-referred participants.

Activities

Programmes follow Victoria's 2017 Minimum Standards, typically running for at least 20 weeks of group work. Curriculum content and delivery format vary by provider within the shared minimum-standards framework.

Results

A 2016 Monash University longitudinal study (Brown, Flynn, Fernandez Arias et al.) tracking men through and after MBCPs found that the number of men reporting violent behaviour fell by half across all 15 measured items of violence immediately after programme completion, and continued to fall at one-year and two-year follow-up.

Conclusions

The Victorian Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor has flagged governance gaps behind this evidence: there is no centralised, independent accreditation body, and providers largely self-assess compliance through unaudited annual reviews. Separate reporting has also described difficulties getting newer, evidence-informed delivery models, such as online programmes, accredited within the existing framework.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — A network of 150+ independently accredited providers; no consolidated network-wide cost figure is reported.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Network operating since the 1990s; current Minimum Standards framework since 2017; behaviour-change effects measured immediately post-programme and at 1- and 2-year follow-up.
Staffing & skills
150+ accredited member organisations delivering group-based MBCPs; No to Violence as peak coordinating body; Men's Referral Service telephone counsellors

Conditions for success

  • Consistent adherence to Victoria's 2017 Minimum Standards across all accredited providers
  • At least 20 weeks of group work, enabling sustained rather than short-lived behaviour change

Common failure modes

  • No centralised, independent accreditation body - providers largely self-assess compliance through unaudited annual reviews
  • Newer, evidence-informed delivery models such as online programmes have faced difficulty getting accredited within the existing framework

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Replication kit

Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful