Community-level Prevention: A vital next step in ending domestic and sexual violence

Community-level strategies are a vital next step in the prevention of domestic, family, and sexual violence. Much prevention activity has addressed risk and protective factors at the individual and relationship levels, but community-level strategies move to more macro levels of society. Community-level strategies have a compelling rationale: they address the social norms, social relations, and social inequalities known to underpin domestic, family, and sexual violence. They move violence prevention closer to the general ideal that initiatives be comprehensive, relevant, and engaging. Community-level approaches ideally engage whole communities, are based on community ownership, and empower community members