R4Respect’s young men’s mentoring and education program enables young men to challenge violence-supportive attitudes and actions with other young men and boys. The aim is to build understanding of more positive forms of masculinity – to overcome the culture of male dominance and instead build gender equality and a valuing of diversity.
We don’t believe that young men need to redefine masculinity. Rather, young men need to reclaim masculinity – the positive and respectful ideals of being a man.
Men4Respect supports young men and boys from diverse backgrounds to foster healthier relationships, develop a healthy sense of masculinity and to build quality relationships between the community and the Youth Workers. The program focusses on consent, empathy and being a positive bystander.
Youth Workers engage young men aged 14 to 21 years, helping them understand the line between what is healthy and what is harmful in relationships and redefining what it means to be a “man”.
We are empowering young men to have the skills to understand what consent and respectful relationships look like, to have empathy towards women and to be active bystanders whenever women talk about their experiences of sexual assault.