Building Bridges: A practical guide to talking about work with men and boys to end VAWG

Today (28th September 2026), the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) and Beyond Equality have launched a new practical guide to support men and boys’ and VAWG sector organisations to put our joint Building Bridges principles into practice.

Building Bridges: A Guide to Talking About This Work, is a new resource that follows the launch of the Building Bridges principles in July. Both the principles and this new guide were developed by EVAW and Beyond Equality and have been supported by a growing coalition of organisations working across the men and boys and violence against women and girls (VAWG) sectors.

The principles set out a shared vision for work with men and boys to end VAWG that is gender transformative and feminist, intersectional, systemic, relational, connected and accountable, hopeful, and inclusive.

This new guide focuses on a crucial part of putting those principles into practice: how we talk about this work publicly*.

Building a future free from VAWG requires us to work together across sectors, and the words we use matter. The way we frame an issue can influence how people understand it, how they feel about it and whether they see themselves as part of creating change. The guide sets out practical ways to communicate about work with men and boys that build common ground, promote equality and wellbeing. It also sets out ways to avoid narratives that can pit the rights and needs of different groups against each other and minimise the realities of VAWG and other inequalities.

It’s essential that we not only put these principles into practice in how we talk about our work, but in how we do the work – ensuring we meaningfully live these values in our actions. We’ll be running a series of workshops on applying these principles in different contexts – from funders to sports bodies, policymakers, charities and schools, and we’ll share learnings from these sessions in future guides. 

Read Building Bridges: A Guide to Talking About This Work and find out how you can put the principles into practice.

Sign up to the principles here

*How and when they are applied will depend on the specific context and scenario. This guide has not been developed as a toolkit for frontline delivery.