Creating change: Mobilising New Zealand communities to prevent family violence

New Zealand, like many other countries, is searching for effective ways to turn the tide on the problem of family violence.a The enormous costs to individuals, communities and society are too significant to be ignored. While we need specialist services to support people who have experienced or used violence, it is now widely recognised that individualised programmatic responses alone will not stop the harm. The problem of family violence is created and reinforced by multiple factors, but we know that social norms (behaviours and beliefs that are seen as normal or correct) and community attitudes and behaviours8,9 can be important risk or protective factors.10-13 Community mobilisation (CM) is an approach that builds local leadership and ownership around an issue, enabling community members to change attitudes and behaviours in ways that work for them. Only the active involvement of a broad range of community members will help to create meaningful change around complex ‘wicked’ problems like family violence.10-13 CM is a relatively new approach to addressing family violence and there is limited evidence of effectiveness available, but there are some examples that show a reduction in violence.7,14 We know we want to end family violence; this issues paper is focused on how a CM approach can be used to help this happen. The intended audience for this paper is primarily community-based practitioners, but also funders, policy makers, and researchers working to support community mobilisation to prevent family violence. While this paper draws on international literature, it has a strong focus on New Zealand and will highlight a number of local CM initiatives to illustrate community mobilisation principles in practice.