Western Sydney Forum | Part 3 Report

We Cannot Refer Our Way Out of Violence What if we stopped asking whether people can be referred into services — and started asking whether our communities have the prevention capacity, relationships, resources and infrastructure needed to stop violence before it occurs?

We Cannot Refer Our Way Out of Violence is the third Western Sydney Violence Prevention Forum report, bringing together research-informed prevention thinking with the practical knowledge of Western Sydney organisations, services and community leaders.

The forum brought together 43 participants from 22 services and organisations across government, local councils, community organisations, health, education, specialist services and grassroots groups.

At the heart of the discussion was a simple but important challenge: Referrals are necessary — but they are not prevention.

The report explores what prevention actually requires: stronger prevention literacy, workforce capability, community power, cultural and lived-experience expertise, stable funding, clear accountability, accessible pathways and the capacity to act before violence escalates into crisis.

Drawing on the Tree of Prevention framework, the report examines prevention as an interconnected system rather than a series of isolated services. It distinguishes between primary prevention, early intervention and tertiary responses, while highlighting the need for investment across the whole prevention ecosystem.

Inside this report you will find:

• Key findings from the Western Sydney Violence Prevention Forum

• Insights into what prevention looks like in practice

• The gap between knowing about prevention and having the capability to do prevention

• Why prevention literacy needs to be strengthened across the workforce

• The importance of community power, cultural knowledge and trusted relationships

• Practical considerations for workforce capacity, funding and organisational support

• The role of schools, workplaces, families, sport, community groups and other everyday settings in prevention

• The importance of clear pathways, shared accountability and cross-sector collaboration

• A practical Western Sydney Prevention Capability Framework

• Six proposed actions for building stronger prevention infrastructure across the region.

Rather than measuring prevention only by crisis numbers or referrals, what would it look like to measure changes in belonging, confidence, attitudes, help-seeking, organisational practice and community capacity before violence occurs?