From the Ground Up: Community-led Approaches to Violence Prevention

What does ‘community-led’ violence prevention actually look like in practice? This episode explores three models at different scales: Dixie Link-Gordon's face-to-face work in Redfern Aboriginal community, Dr Zoe Bell's partnership with the Australian Rohingya Women's Development Organisation navigating displacement and statelessness, and Dr Jenny Anderson's city-wide Respect Ballarat saturation initiative.

About episode

Who leads violence prevention work, and how? ‘Community-led’ has become a buzzword, but what does it actually mean in practice?

In this episode, we explore three distinct models of community-driven prevention work, each operating at a different scale but sharing core principles.

Dixie Link-Gordon brings 38 years of experience working in the Redfern Aboriginal community, where prevention happens in face-to-face conversations, built on trust and connection. Dr Zoe Bell shares how the Australian Rohingya Women's Development Organisation creates protective factors and resistance within displacement, statelessness, and temporary protection. And Dr Jenny Anderson explains the Respect Ballarat saturation model – a government-funded initiative attempting to coordinate prevention activities across an entire city of 120,000 people whilst genuinely partnering with community.

From yarns on the street to women-only safe spaces to city-wide coordination, these three guests reveal what community ownership actually requires: time, trust, meeting people where they're at, and understanding that communities can only do so much when operating within structural constraints.

The principles hold across every scale: communities define the need, shape the solution, and own the work. Our job is to support that, not replace it.