Engaging Men is…
A critical strategy in the effort to advance your strategic planning, program development, and implementation to meaningfully engage men to end and prevent domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and harassment, and stalking.
It focuses on shifting the difficult reality that all men play a role in enabling violence and abuse to one that incites the opportunity all men have to stop it. Approaches to engage men must recognize that power dynamics and experiences with trauma create the need for their own healing and also affect how they spark change.
The reality is that our world needs more men to be agents of change. The burden of advocating for communities to be free of violence has been disproportionately carried by women for too long. Engaging Men is about building a robust pipeline of individuals, partners, allies, and more to inspire men from all walks of life to recognize and leverage their strengths to advocate for the health, safety, and wellbeing of all people in every community.
5 Principles of Engaging Men
Violence is not inevitable.
Men perpetrate violence not because all men are bad or want to cause harm, but because all of us are surrounded by messages which say that to be violent, invulnerable, and controlling are what it means to be a man. Our approaches must open more ways for men to take action and show care, vulnerability, learning, and accountability.
Men have the power to make our communities safer
Whether it is as peers, parents, or policymakers, all men can leverage their strengths, roles and this power to advocate for the health, safety, and wellbeing of all people in every community.
Relationships are essential
It is through relationships and shared values with individuals, groups, communities, and institutions that our efforts to engage men become meaningful and sustainable; and it is through men’s relationships with their families, workplaces, communities, other men, and themselves that they can create positive change.
Trauma and healing are principal.
To interrupt cycles of violence, approaches to engage men must enable tools to build healthy relationships and support survivors.
The process is the program.
Engaging men at every stage of generating ideas, developing content, facilitating sessions, and creating plans encourages collective ownership and opens opportunities for men to take meaningful action. Efforts to engage men will fail unless they meet men where they’re at.
The Role of Men in Ending Violence
- All men can play meaningful roles in the movement to end violence through healing and action, whether as fathers, coaches, colleagues, siblings, elected officials, and beyond.
Men can:
Heal, learn, and grow healthy relationships with themselves and others.
Model healthy behaviors for young people and other men.
Bring other men in as allies to end violence.
Intervene when they hear or see abusive behaviors.
Share their stories as allies and survivors.
Support survivors of domestic and sexual violence in their lives.
Hold discussions about violence and expectations of being a man.
Build an awareness campaign or programming in their school, organization, or community.
Key Engaging Men Strategies
Work engaging men in violence prevention continues to grow with greater evidence & resources on ‘how’ we engage men and ‘what’ we can do. A broad spectrum of interventions and engagements can be implemented including:
Programming with men that promotes positive bystander intervention and respectful relationships.
Public education campaigns, including social marketing and media that feature short and long-term calls-to-action that men can take to end and prevent violence.
Work with fathers or men who are caregivers to be positive, trauma-informed role models to boys and young people overall.
Encouraging and training men to be facilitators, storytellers, coordinators, and leaders of anti-violence efforts.
Addressing the stigmas that prevent men from receiving mental health and victim service resources.
Leveraging the roles that men have as leaders and decision-makers to advocate within systems (i.e. education, workplaces, government).
ABOUT US:
The Engaging Men to End Violence: Resource & Strategy Center was created as a partnership between the US Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and Futures Without Violence (FUTURES) in 2022.
With a commitment to approaches and programs that support the engagement of men as allies & partners in efforts to end violence, these organizations identified the need to create a consolidated, easily-navigable hub to learn and share programs and best practices within the field.
Want more resources and information? Email us at engagingmen@futureswithoutviolence.org.
*Note: This website is a breathing, constantly growing resource hub. If you have additional resources, articles, or guidance that you would like to be featured, please let us know!
This project was supported by Grant No. 2019-TA-AX-K002, awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.