CPS: Boys 2 Adolescence “B2A” Rebecca Christie1 and Thomas Gould2 Family Services Sexual Abuse Counselling and Prevention Program

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging and any Aboriginal people with us here today.

Today’s presentation Background and concept Literature review and evidence base Evaluation The future of B2A Questions / comments

Why was B2A developed? There are a high number of family services cases with family violence There is an increase in adolescent violence in the home CPS have an interest in family violence prevention and raising community awareness

Background and concept How was the B2A program developed? Conducting a targeted literature review about the underlying causes of family violence Research of other programs with similar themes and cohorts in Victoria Forming partnerships with local schools

LITERATURE REVIEW The literature tells us: Focus on family violence prevention through education Exploring how young people build healthy relationships Focus on working in partnership with local schools to run family violence prevention programs

LITERATURE REVIEW Focus on young people forming their identity and learning about different gender stereotypes Focus on the underlying causes of family violence Working with young people to break down rigid gender stereotypes

IMPLEMENTING b2a Three pilot groups have been implemented across two schools: One group at Hazelglen College in 2015 and Two groups implemented at Lalor North College in 2017 The schools identified participants to take part in the group Pre and post evaluations are currently being analysed across the three groups

Session Overview Four key topics discussed in B2A are: Gender and Identity Feelings and Conflict resolution Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships Impacts of social media

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS Across the three groups, themes that participants identified as being helpful in altering their perceptions and behaviour included: The importance of cyber safety Understanding relationships in their lives Managing feelings and conflict Gender and the idea of masculinity

Where to from here? Another B2A group will be piloted in 2018 The CPS B2A program will continue to be evaluated with findings being analysed to better understand its impact with a view to publication. CPS would like to be able to offer this group program to more schools into the future

Thank you QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Key references: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (Producer). (2015, February 23). Family Violence Special [transcript]. On Q&A. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4173309.htm Berry Street Victoria. (2012). Helping boys to break the cycle of family violence. Richmond: Change Point Ltd. Flood, M., Fergus, L., & Heenan, M. (2009). Respectful Relationships Education. Vic Health. Melbourne: Communications Division for the Student Wellbeing Division Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Melbourne. Peterson, C. C. (2010). Looking Forward Through the Lifespan (Vol. 5th). Frenchs Forest: Pearson Australia. Raising Children Network. (2011, August Friday). Pre-teens development: overview. Retrieved January Tuesday, 2015 from Raising Children. VicHealth. (2007). Preventing violence before it occurs. Victoria: Victoria Health Promotion Foundation.