Date: November 2024

Lana Wells, alongside colleagues and partners, led groundbreaking conversations at major Alberta conferences throughout November 2024 to highlight the importance of engaging communities and mobilizing men to prevent and address domestic violence.

Across three key presentations at the Diverse Voices Conference and Next Gen Men’s Momentum Summit, Shift is continuing to share new research and catalyze change across sectors and communities.

Diverse Voices Conference: Preventing Male Perpetration and Advancing Primary Prevention in Rural Communities

Wells contributed to two impactful sessions during this two-day conference designed to bring innovative research, best practices, and local perspectives to the project ofunderstanding and addressing family violence.

Presenting Shift’s groundbreaking research on identifying and interrupting trajectories of male perpetration, Wells highlighted new opportunities to predict and prevent domestic violence.

In collaboration with The School of Public Policy and leveraging a robust 10-year dataset supplied by Calgary Police Service, this study finds a distinct trajectory of increased criminal behaviour and police interactions among male perpetrators before a charge involving domestic violence in 2019. These findings mean that we can stop violence before it escalates by providing high-risk men with resources and support at the right time.

Alongside YWCA Banff’s Neil Atkinson, Wells presented at a second session to share insights from the ‘Made in Alberta’ rural primary prevention collaborative. Together with leaders and residents in Banff, Cochrane, and High River, this collaborative is building community-level primary prevention plans.

Primary prevention is a proactive approach to stopping violence or harm before it occurs by addressing the​ underlying causes, risk factors, and​ social conditions that lead to it. ​​In building a primary prevention workforce, the ‘Made in Alberta’ collaborative is supporting the capacity of rural communities to advance policy and systems change work.

Momentum Summit: Shaping Environments to Prevent Violence

At Next Gen Men’s Momentum Summit, Lana Wells joined colleagues Jake Stika, Katie Smith-Parent, and Kevin Tsang on the conference’s closing panel: “The Unspeakable Things: Confronting the Tensions in Engaging Men and Boys”.

From thinking through dynamics of power and privilege to gendered expectations around male vulnerability, the panel highlighted the value of changing both minds and contexts to prevent male-perpetrated gender-based violence.

Building from Shift’s 2020 Changing Contexts Framework – designed in partnership with 14 government and human service agencies – Wells emphasized that preventing male-perpetrated violence requires shifting physical and sociocultural environments to promote prosocial and equitable behaviours.

The importance of changing contexts where men and boys live, work, and play cannot be overstated: our environments, peers, and social norms are instrumental in influencing how we live our lives.

A Collaborative Vision for Prevention

Through these conferences, Shift and our partners continue to advance evidence-based frameworks and innovative solutions to end violence. Whether engaging private sector leaders, supporting rural communities, or presenting new research, Shift is committed to preventing violence through collective action and changing systems.