Prepare mentors
Develop and extend proactive bystander training, domestic and family violence awareness and practical learning about respect, accountability and safe responses.
COMMUNITY-LED PREVENTION
Help men play
their part in
prevention.
Fund practical prevention skills for mentors and a research partnership to evaluate their impact on participants, with findings informing our Model of Care.
Contact us ↗A funding opportunity · Scope agreed with partners
PROPOSAL DEVELOPED WITH
THE CAPABILITY WE WANT TO BUILD
Trusted connections.
Practical prevention.
Our white paper identifies a specific training need: mentors have developed confidence in conversations about suicide and self-harm, but report less confidence asking about potential harm to others.
This project would extend their preparation through proactive bystander skills: noticing concerning behaviour, considering safety, having constructive conversations and knowing when to connect with specialist help.
Men can experience violence and abuse too, and can be important allies in prevention. The work must support everyone affected, uphold accountability for harmful behaviour and keep clear boundaries around the mentor’s role.
WHAT YOU COULD HELP FUND
Put the support
behind the conversation.
Connect with specialist services
Build agreed referral pathways and working arrangements with specialist organisations. Support mentors through supervision and clear escalation processes.
Evaluate effectiveness
Find a research partner to develop the methodology and evaluate participant outcomes beyond the Flourishing Scale. Use the findings to inform mentor preparation, delivery and evidence-based refinement of our Model of Care.
Funding would support curriculum development, practical training, staff capacity, supervision, specialist collaboration and a research partnership to evaluate effectiveness. The research partner would help develop a methodology to measure participant impact beyond the Flourishing Scale, with findings guiding improvements to the programme and our Model of Care. Shared costs would be agreed alongside the national expansion plan.
WHAT MENTORS WOULD PRACTISE
Skills for everyday
situations.
These skills can travel beyond a mentorship into families, workplaces and communities. That wider contribution is part of what the project would examine.
Notice and understand
Recognise concerning attitudes and behaviours, including coercive control, and understand why context and safety matter.
Open a conversation
Practise calm, non-shaming ways to question harmful attitudes, listen and encourage responsibility without excusing harm.
Respond within the role
Choose an appropriate, safe response and know when not to intervene directly. Mentors would not become violence risk assessors or behaviour-change practitioners.
Connect and follow up
Use agreed specialist referral and escalation pathways, with supervision and support from MM’s team.
RESEARCH THAT SHAPES THE SERVICE
Measure the impact.
Use the evidence.
We want to understand whether this approach is effective, for whom and under what conditions. That requires a research partner and a methodology designed around the participant outcomes we seek.
Develop the methodology
Work with a research partner to define the evaluation questions, suitable measures beyond the Flourishing Scale, follow-up periods and the design needed to assess effectiveness. The measures and approach would be agreed through that work.
Evaluate participant outcomes
Examine the impact on participants alongside how the programme is delivered. Training completion and mentor confidence would be part of understanding delivery; the evaluation would also investigate whether meaningful outcomes change for participants.
Build the learning into our Model of Care
The methodology would inform how outcomes are measured, and the findings would guide evidence-based updates to the Model of Care, mentor training and service delivery. This would create a cycle of evaluation and improvement, including changing approaches that the evidence does not support.
A research partner has yet to be identified. The study design, ethics requirements and final evaluation scope would be developed together before research begins.
PURPOSE & BOUNDARIES
Safety and accountability
come first.
Mentorship is non-clinical support. This project does not replace specialist domestic and family violence services, crisis responses or accredited men’s behaviour change programs. It does not make mentors responsible for managing violence or assessing whether someone is safe.
Any proposed involvement of men using violence requires specialist advice, suitability decisions and explicit service boundaries. The prevention aims in the white paper are goals for evaluation, not evidence that mentoring has already reduced violence.
Read our Model of Care ↗THE THINKING BEHIND THIS PROJECT
Based on Mentoring Men’s 2025 white paper, Engaging Men in Domestic and Family Violence Prevention.
We’ll discuss the supporting material, current delivery capacity and the outcomes to evaluate as part of a funding conversation.
LET’S TALK
Help strengthen
community prevention.
Talk with us about funding mentor preparation, the research partnership and evaluation, or the internal capacity needed to turn evidence into improvements.