Domestic violence, in particular the murder of women in Austria, is a very urgent and serious problem that occurs periodically. The Dachverband Männerarbeit Österreich sees it as its duty to tackle this problem with all its expertise and professionalism. Here, hegemonic male social relations and, as their real manifestation, violence-orientated masculinities are seen as the main justifying factor for the use of domestic violence by men against people in their social environment (e.g. partners, children).

The Ministry of Social Affairs has recognised the need in this area and supports the DMÖ's violence prevention counselling for men. These projects are categorised as primary violence prevention. The aim is to create a range of men's counselling services throughout Austria that reach men at a low-threshold level and at an early stage in order to prevent escalating conflicts, violent developments and behaviour that endangers others and themselves. The aim of the funding programme is to ensure that counselling options for men are as easily accessible as possible in all federal states.

Men's counselling is professional psychosocial counselling in individual or group settings, which is aimed at men and male adolescents and covers a wide range of topics (health, partnership, sexuality, victim experiences, work, professional problems, social isolation and problem situations, family problems, partnership conflicts, separation, divorce, custody, violent behaviour within and outside the family, etc.).

Violence prevention is also a field of work for many institutions organised in the DMÖ. Violence prevention can take place prior to acts of violence and prevent violence from occurring in the first place (primary prevention); in this context, activities that promote identities and self-concepts in which destructive and violence-affine components are unlikely to occur can be regarded as violence prevention. Particular attention must be paid to target groups that are otherwise difficult to reach, for example due to social disadvantage, language barriers or residential location (e.g. in rural areas). Low-threshold is therefore a key criterion for reaching these target groups in particular.

Men's counselling, which aims to ensure that critical situations such as separation, divorce, custody conflicts etc. are handled in a constructive and de-escalating manner, fulfils a primary violence prevention function in a special sense. Such situations often form the context in which men's violent behaviour occurs. Men's counselling in an anonymous and confidential setting is the appropriate violence prevention approach in this context.

Against this background, the services offered by the members of the DMÖ as part of this project focus on primary prevention and thus on violence-preventive (and low-threshold) counselling for men.

Conference & network meeting for men's counselling
16/17 September 2024 | Arcotel Wimberger, Vienna

Boys' education, father education, men's counselling, violence, addiction and crisis intervention, trans, gay and queer counselling, therapy and men's health issues, sexual counselling, solutions for family and compatibility conflicts and much more. The growing field of men's work has become much more differentiated and professionalised over the past two decades. However, the provision is still patchy and often precarious.

How can we achieve a nationwide system of solidly anchored men's work and counselling? How can competence reflecting gender and masculinity be implemented in the existing counselling services and structures and strengthened among the counsellors themselves?

The international conference on 16-17 September 2024 in Vienna will bring together practitioners from the entire field of gender-reflective work with men, boys and fathers. It aims to learn from each other, exchange methods and reflect on the relevance of the work (at an individual, regional and societal level). Last but not least, we want to fight together to ensure that men's work receives the resources and security it needs to become a sustainable part of public services.

The international conference is part of the "Fostering Sustainable Masculinities" (FOSMA) project. This is supported by the umbrella organisations in the German-speaking world Dachverband Männerarbeit Österreich (DMÖ), Bundesforum Männer, Germany (BFM), männer.ch from Switzerland and infoMann from Luxembourg and is funded by the European Union as part of ERASMUS+.

With Markus Theunert (Männer.ch), Dag Schölper (BFM, DE), Eberhard Siegl (DMÖ, AT), Jean Wagener (InfoMann, LU), Anne Gallrein (BFKM, DE), Björn Süfke (mann-o-mann, DE), Mart Busche (ASH, DE), Matthias Stinn (Dipl. Psych., DE), Christoph Walser (Timeout statt Burnout, CH), Elli Scambor (VMG, AT), Erich Lehner (DMÖ, AT), Hubert Steger (DMÖ, AT), Klaus Schwerma (BFM, DE), Marc Gärtner(BFM, DE), Matthias Becker (Gleichstellungsstelle der Stadt Nürnberg, DE), Romeo Bissuti (MEN, AT) and many more.