About this Tool
Introduction
The Working with Men and Boys for Social Justice Assessment Tool aims to provide leaders, designers and facilitators of programs or initiatives for men and boys the opportunity to review, reflect on and strengthen principles of gender and social justice. The Tool comprises key aspects that support positive social change in programs designed for men and boys. The Tool’s design is informed by research and practice in the areas of social justice, gender studies and the critical sociology of men and masculinities (Flood, 2019; OurWatch, 2019; HealthWest, 2020; Healing Foundation et al. 2017; IRC, 2014). It has been designed for work with men and boys as programs in this area do not always support social and gender justice. Many programs in this space are under-resourced and are not adequately informed by gender/social justice research and theory. The Tool is designed for work with men and boys, as this is a significant area of practice in health and well-being promotion, violence prevention and other fields.
This Tool is designed to help you and your program. We do not collect any identifiable information from your responses. We only track how many people have completed the Tool. This means that you cannot ‘save’ your progress and come back to it another time.
The key areas and items in the Tool recognise that support and work with men and boys can create cultural change for gender and social justice through providing them with the knowledge and skills to engage with themselves and others in respectful and caring ways.
The Tool is relevant for work with men and boys across a wide range of fields and issues, including violence prevention, health and wellbeing, restorative justice, parenting, and other areas.
The Working with Men and Boys for Social Justice Assessment Tool is intended for use by:
- Organisations and advocates seeking to assess and improve their own work with men and boys;
- Organisations and advocates seeking to open discussion with program leaders, facilitators and participants about the strengths of their program and what they could focus on to improve their program;
- Others seeking to assess the merits of work among men and boys.
Policymakers, funders, and other practitioners may find the Tool useful in identifying elements of good practice, although the Tool is best completed by organisations and practitioners who are themselves implementing programs.
The Working with Men and Boys for Social Justice Tool is organised as a checklist. It involves 56 principles, organised into four key areas, as follows.
| Checklist Area | Number of Items | Approximate proportion of the checklist |
|---|---|---|
| Aims and focus | 14 | 25% |
| Scale and support | 5 | 9% |
| Teaching and learning | 31 | 55% |
| Evaluation and inprovement | 6 | 11% |
| Total | 56 | 100% |
Focus
The Working with Men and Boys for Social Justice Assessment Tool is designed particularly for the assessment of face-to-face education programs, rather than online educational programs or other strategies such as social marketing and communications campaigns. Aspects of its criteria, however, can be applied to the assessment of online education programs.
Resources
The Tool is complemented by supporting resources. After completing the Tool, a Resources Bank with a range of helpful materials is available to support engagement and improvement of programs in the four areas of the Tool: 1) Aims and focus; 2) Scale and support; 3) Teaching and learning; and 4) Evaluation and improvement.
This tool is designed to help you and your program. We do not collect any identifiable information from your responses. We only track how many people have completed the Tool. This means that you cannot ‘save’ your progress and come back to it another time.
