Organizational Alliances
Why would other organizations want to work with you on preventing gender-based violence?
Organizations may take the opportunity to work with you simply because they want to contribute to the public good and support the right of women and men to live free of the threat of violence. However, different groups want to get involved in violence prevention for different reasons.
For example, a company may want to improve community relations or to minimize the economic costs of violence, such as lost productivity and increased health insurance costs. Faith-based organizations may see violence prevention work as an extension of their moral teachings and a goal of promoting better relationships. They also may be responding to a tragedy in their community.
Organizations that work with youth, such as schools and health-care providers, usually work to end gender-based violence because they see firsthand that violence has a huge emotional and intellectual impact on children. And sports associations may be reacting to criticisms of past or ongoing violence against women perpetrated by some male athletes.
Recognizing and understanding others’ motives helps you to better understand their actions. When you begin to explore a partnership, you should work together to identify and articulate the mutual goals for and benefits from ending gender-based violence.
Why should your organization make the effort necessary to build partnerships with others? See the Top 7 Reasons. internal link
Exercise: Expanding Alliances
This exercise is for organizations that wish to examine the possibility of building new alliances in order to increase the impact of their work.
Recommended Reading
Read articles about building partnerships to work with men and boys on preventing violence.
