Building momentum across the Hills

The first quarter of 2026 has shown what is possible when a community begins to unite around a shared vision. Across The Hills, more organisations, professionals and community members are engaging with Zero DFV, sharing prevention messaging and looking for practical ways to contribute to lasting change. The momentum building behind this work is encouraging and, importantly, it is reinforcing something we have always believed: communities want to be part of the solution when they are given the tools, knowledge and connections to act.

• 36,000+ people viewed ZERO DFV prevention messaging in The Hills Shire
• 11,000+ people in The Hills Shire engaged with our posts (viewing, clicking, sharing, commenting)
• 1,400 new people visited The Hills Zero DFV website

From 1 Jan to 31 Mar 2026

Significant in-roads onboarding the community

This first quarter of 2026 has seen some milestone progress in onboarding the community into the Zero DFV vision, which remains one of the core strategic goals this year. This has included bringing on our Community Mobilisation Lead, Kirsty Sier, in January. Kirsty has invested significant time reaching out one-on-one to members of The Hills community to introduce herself and is well underway in her work to collate actions we can take to support local efforts. This has included increasing community understanding of DFV in The Hills Shire and how every community member can support progress toward Zero DFV; an educational piece that has already established some deep roots.

In February, we began the community stakeholder onboarding process, which delivered several important insights. During our initial conversations, our champions within partner organisations have requested access to resources they can circulate to introduce the program within their internal networks and gauge interest before arranging meetings. As a result, we developed a stakeholder teaser video and associated assets, which have already been effective in bringing people on board with the Zero DFV vision.

The stakeholder teaser video will be covered in more depth in the Q2 update, but can be viewed online here.

If you are a member of a community organisation or have contacts within key employers in The Hills, we would greatly appreciate any introductions that you can provide. Please share the above-linked video as widely as possible within your networks.

Case study: Wesley Mission

In February we doubled down on active efforts to engage more of the community in the change process. An excellent case study that demonstrates the success of these strategic partnerships, as well as the enthusiasm for eliminating domestic and family violence, is Wesley Mission.

Wesley Mission has been involved with, and supportive of, the Zero DFV project since its early stages. They are now offering practical opportunities to actively promote Zero DFV messages across their network.

To date in 2026, this has included:

• Promotion of Zero DFV messages on Wesley Mission’s roadside billboard
• Playing videos on internal TV screens within their facilities
• Providing speaking opportunities and invitations to attend their events
• Supporting introductions and navigation within interfaith community networks.
  

Strong engagement with Zero DFV education

The newsletter has become an increasingly important part of our communication with the community, which is why we continue to make improvements to ensure it's giving The Hills community the knowledge, tools and connections it needs to eliminate domestic and family violence.

February saw a newsletter strategy shift, to accommodate the focused Zero DFV goal of community education. This was the first month we trialled a new approach to the Zero DFV newsletter, using it as an educational tool rather than solely a program update.

This first educational newsletter focused on recognising the signs of coercive control, providing simple and accessible information for readers; while in March, the focus was on understanding, recognising and preventing elder abuse. Both topics were chosen to align with the prioritised prevention goals laid out in the Zero DFV Navbook. The focus on elder abuse also allowed us to profile the incredible work of the Older Women's Network NSW, one of the organisations with whom we have nurtured a strategic relationship based on mutual support.

We have also had some great successes with social media campaigns that have incorporated this educational focus. For example, we ran a Facts & Stats Campaign on Instagram and Facebook throughout January. This campaign promoted key facts about domestic and family violence in The Hills Shire and encouraged people to get involved in the Zero DFV program. The campaign achieved significant reach, totalling almost 30,000 people over the 60-day campaign period! Based on the data we received from this campaign we also now know there is significant curiosity and desire to learn more about DFV across all age groups and genders, which is incredibly positive news.

The response to this educational approach across both newsletter and social content has been very encouraging; we have experienced a significant increase in click-through and engagement rates. This strong positive response to educational content is incredibly heartening, given community education about domestic and family violence is one of the key ways to prevent it.

Participant feedback: Joslene A

"What stands out most is the practical value of these connections. They save time, remove a lot of the usual barriers, and make it so much easier to turn ideas into action. At the same time, they bring people together in a really meaningful way, creating stronger collaboration across the community.

"Being connected to a network like Zero DFV doesn’t just help individual projects like mine, it strengthens the whole community. It creates a space where people feel supported, ideas can grow, and real change can happen. I’m really grateful to be part of this network and for the genuine care and commitment to supporting both people and community outcomes.”

Giving people the tools, knowledge and connections they need to share prevention messaging

The Expert Squad and Amplifier Squad have both continued to go from strength to strength in the first quarter of 2026. Both have continued to meet regularly, and we have well and truly begun to see - and benefit from - the ripple effect of shared learning.

In March, the focus for the Expert Squad was to deepen understanding of the DFV prevention initiatives that already exist in The Hills community; and to identify where the gaps are so we can focus effort where it will have the most impact.

The Expert Squad held three working sessions across March alone, bringing together subject matter experts including professionals working in domestic and family violence prevention, along with people who bring lived experience. This mix is critical. For example, professionals have been able to speak to service system constraints, while lived experience contributors highlight where people fall through the cracks or do not seek help at all.

• Brief participants on current campaign progress
• Support participants to apply these insights to their own organisations and campaigns.
  

We have also begun to activate the networks we have access to through the Amplifier Squad, including through use of the Squad to share the stakeholder teaser video and associated landing page as widely as possible. We are incredibly grateful for the time and efforts of the individuals in these squads, whose expertise and community connections have been invaluable in getting the Zero DFV message and vision out into the community.