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• WESTERN SYDNEY FORUM | PART 5
Women are dying.
What are we missing?
A morning for people who already know the statistics. We are not here to repeat what the sector knows. We are here to name what still has to change in Western Sydney, and to leave with action.
Monday 26 October 2026
9:00am - 12:00pm
Free • Places limited • Morning tea provided
Atura Hotel, Blacktown
WHY THIS FORUM
Preventing violence starts well before the first call to police.
What boys learn about respect, relationships, masculinity and conflict shapes the choices they make as men. Families, schools, services and community all have a role to play before harm occurs.
This forum brings together people working across prevention, men's behaviour change, policing, youth, family violence, community services and lived experience. Each of us sees a different part of the pathway. Together we can see where it is still breaking.
Come ready to be honest, to listen across roles, and to commit to what happens next.
01 • SEEING IT EARLIER
Before violence escalates
What do we keep missing before violence escalates?
Which behaviours, attitudes and warning signs are visible earlier than we act on them?
How are boys and men learning about masculinity, power, relationships and women?
02 • WHERE SYSTEMS FALL SHORT
Too little, too late
What are current systems doing too late?
Where does men's accountability need to begin?
Are our current prevention responses strong enough?
03 • WHERE CHANGE LIVES
Community, here and now.
What could schools, families, workplaces, sporting clubs and community do differently?
What needs to change in Western Sydney specifically?
What practical action should follow from his conversation?
CULTURE, KINSHIP, COMMUNITY
Violence is not culture.
Culture is protection.
Aboriginal women carry a far heavier burden of family violence, and the reasons run through colonisation, dispossession, removal of children and interventional trauma. Any honest conversation about what we are missing has to start there, and has to be shaped by Aboriginal voices.
Kinship and shared responsibility.
Raising boys into respectful men has always been the work of family, Elders, and community together. Prevention is stronger when it draws on those relationships rather than working around them.
Men's healing and accountability
Accountability and healing go together, Culturally grounded men's groups and yarning circles give Aboriginal men and boys a place to own their behaviour and reconnect with who they are.
Community-led, culturally safe
Systems act too late when Aboriginal families do not feel safe to reach out. Self-determination means Aboriginal organisations lead the responses that serve their communities.
GUEST SPEAKERS
Two perspectives, from different points of the problem
One has seen where the pathway ends, in policing and justice. The other works where it begins, with boys and young men. Between them sits in the space this forum wants to fill.
Dr Vincent Hurley
Criminologist and Lecturer, Macquarie University. Former NSW Police Detective Superintendent and former NSW Police
Domestic & Family Violence Policy Director.
Daniel Allars
NSW State Manager, Top Blokes Foundation. Working with boys and young men on healthy masculinity, respectful relationships and early intervention.
HOW TO JOIN US
Secure your spot
TOPIC OF DISCUSSION
Women are dying, what are we missing?
DATES
TIME
26th October 2026
9:00AM - 12:00PM
COST
LOCATION
Atura Blacktown
FOOD
Morning Tea Provided
Free
Registering your interest is a commitment to attend this forum. At the end of the forum, we will forward you a detail report of the conversation we had.
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