SafeMan, SafeFamily

A summary report will be available in late 2023. In the meantime, a draft report is available for download here.

Project lead: Tony O’Connor

SMSF is a peer-led, professionally supported community of men with the shared goal of becoming violence-free so they, their families and communities can become safe. Rather than delivering a defined and time-specific course or programme, SMSF focuses on providing what is wanted by the men coming to them for help, for as long as they want it. The men are supported through three phases, “Uncover, Discover, Recover” where they are encouraged to reflect on the trauma they have experienced and their use of violence and its causes. They learn what they can do about it and put their learning into practice (e.g., building healthier relationships).

This evaluation was completed as a partnership between Point and Awa Associates Ltd. It sat alongside the SMSF pilot, seeking to understand how SMSF responds to the needs of men in order to encourage sustained change and promote wellbeing. The primary question for the evaluation was, “to what extent, and how, does the SMSF intervention model reduce the risk of intimate partner violence by changing the views and behaviours of men who have used violence?”

Because SMSF’s practice varied given men’s needs and goals, the evaluation team undertook a principles-based approach which focused on surfacing the largely unspoken rules underpinning the intentionality of what SMSF’s work does, describing what these principles looked like in practice, and the difference this makes for men and their families. The evaluators attended and participated in many SMSF meetings and conducted interviews with 47 peers, peer-leaders, families and professionals. They also surveyed peers, peer-leaders and families and whanau.

A paper in the Evaluation Journal of Australasia describing the procedural and participatory ethics of doing this community-based evaluation in practice is available here.

This evaluation was funded by the Ministry of Social Development.