Engaging Men to Prevent Gender Based Violence

I have been working to mobilize and organize men and boys to prevent gender based violence for over 30 years. I focus on grassroots organizing at the community or campus level; and have helped to develop dozens of community-based, campus-based, state networks and national organizations.

My approach to working with organizations, communities and campuses focuses on the how of effectively engaging men in your context.  Building on your existing strengths and resources, I help to develop a campaign that can effectively invite men to join your efforts, and sustain their involvement.

One of the core tools I created is the Continuum of Male Engagement (2006/2018).  I have sense developed an array of tools and resources related to this that you can access here — http://rusfunk.me/continuum-of-male-engagement

I also focus on working to create the organizational, campus and community environment that supports male involvement and activism (through organizational culture, social norms, etc.).

Recent Presentations:

Men as Advocates and ChangeMakers for Women’s Human Rights  University of Louisville. (May, 2018)

Where Courage and Compassion Reside:  Using Compassion as a means to effectively engage men and boys in preventing violence. Presented at Ivy Tech Community College.  (April, 2018)

Addressing the Demand: Preventing Men from demanding women’s Bodies to Use Sexually  Workshop presented at the 2018 Southern Indiana Human Trafficking Conference. (April 2018)

Where Courage and Compassion Reside:  Engaging men to Promote Women’s Human Rights. Sermon presented at Clifton Unitarian Church, Louisville, KY. (April, 2018)

What’s Wrong with this Picture:  Supporting Male Students to Examine the Impact of Viewing Pornography.  Workhop at the Midwest Campus Safety Summit. (April, 2018)

An Intersectional Approach to Reaching and Mobilizing Men on Campus  Keynote at the MidWest Campus Safety Summit, Muncie, IN. (April, 2018)

An Intersectional Approach to Reaching and Mobilizing Men  Workshop at the annual summit of MultiCultural Efforts to End Sexual Assault.  (Feb., 2018)

Resources:

Continuum of Male Engagement (Revised)

I created the continuum of male engagement as a conceptual tool specific to engaging men in efforts to prevent sexual and domestic violence.  The underlying  premise and perspective, however, is true regardless of what it is that you’re seeking to engage men to be a part of.  Based on this continuum, I  can help you to focus your target audience (i.e., which men do you seek to engage and which men are most engage-able for your program or service) and develop a strategy to engage those men.

Engaging Men Across the Social Ecology I developed this visual, base don the work of Dr Michael Flood, to visually depict some of the methods necessary for engaging men and support men being engaged across the social ecology.

Barriers-to-Engaging Men-Across-the-SEM  I developed this based on the work of Dr. Michael Flood as a visual depiction of the various barriers that inhibit men’s involvement.

(Note:  All of these tools are a part of my training: Using Public Health Theory and Practice to Engage and Mobilize Men to Prevent Gender Based Violence).

Clarifying the “Engagement” of Engaging Men   In this is a one-page overview, I examine five different but overlapping goals that are common in efforts to “engage” men.  A longer article is forthcoming.

Principles of Engaging Men  These core principles, based on an array of global resources, provide the conceptual foundation and ethical guide for efforts to engage men and boys to promote gender equality.

ARTICLES

Engaging Men in Actions for Prevention (Funk, 2008) Using Participatory Action Research, Funk interviewed 21 male activists of varying ages, sexual orientations and ethnic backgrounds who work to prevent gender-based violence about our experiences and the lessons we’ve learned from these experiences.

Engaging Diverse Men (Peretz, 2017)  In this 2017 article, Tal Peretz describes the impact of culture, race, geography and ethnicity on efforts to engage men in preventing gender-based violence.

Gender Transformative Approaches to EM (Casey, Carlson, et al. 2018) Dr. Casey and her colleagues use a gender transformative lens to review various efforts at engaging men and outline how the lack of clarity about what is meant by “engaging” leads to some confusion between various efforts:  engaging men to attend events, engaging men to be involved in social change, etc.  They then suggest different tactics and strategies are needed depending on what the goals for engaging men are.

Men Speak Up A Toolkit for Action in Men’s Daily Lives (Flood, 2013) In this report, Dr. Flood described basis efforts for men’s action clumped into three categories: behaving nonviolently, taking action among other men and women, and joining in collective action.  He goes on to note strategies to nourish personal strength and acknowledges the mistakes that can be made.

What Motivates Men’s Involvement to Prevent Gender-Based Violence Prevent (Casey et al, 2016) Dr. Casey and her colleagues explore, based on conversation with men who are involved in efforts to engage men and boys, the motivations behind men’s activism and involvement.

Working-with-Men-and-Boys-to-Prevent-Gender-Based-Violence (Peacock & Barker, 2014) In this Report, Dean Peacock and Gary Barker (co-founder of the Sonke Social Justice Center in South Africa and Promundo respectively; and co-founders (along with other colleagues) of the Global MenEngage Alliance) outline key strategies for working with men and lessons learned about efforts to engage men and boys in preventing gender-based violence.