Healthier Illawarra Men is more than a men’s health group … it’s a region-wide movement bringing together business, sport, schools, health professionals and everyday blokes to reshape what healthy masculinity looks like.
This presentation explores how HIM is inspiring real cultural and generational change at the grassroots level through storytelling, lived experience, community/sport, and powerful partnerships — most notably with Tomorrow Man, whose emotionally raw and highly interactive workshops across Illawarra schools, sports clubs and workplaces are giving men and boys the tools to speak up, open up, and show up differently.
In the last 12 months alone, HIM helped deliver a series of Tomorrow Man sessions to over 1000 young men across the region. These sessions have not only improved mental health literacy but have become a springboard for deeper cultural shifts in environments where outdated notions of masculinity have long gone unchallenged.
The presentation will also showcase HIM’s original domestic violence prevention initiative, It Starts With Me. Today. — a regional campaign that reframes men’s role in ending gendered violence by focusing on accountability, upstander behaviour, and community-led conversations. The initiative has attracted strong support from local government, businesses, sporting clubs and survivor advocates.
Backed by real-life stories, short video case studies, and measurable impact, this presentation will demonstrate how local partnerships, when grounded in trust and lived experience, can foster sustainable change in how men relate to themselves, to each other, and to the women and children in their lives.
We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we are helping men ask better questions, challenge the silence, and be part of something bigger than themselves.
This is a blueprint for change that could inspire similar movements in communities across Australia.
This presentation will explore how HIM, in partnership with Tomorrow Man, is helping spark lasting cultural change in the Illawarra region through real, raw, community-led engagement. From high school gymnasiums to local footy sheds, we’re creating spaces where men and boys drop the mask, question outdated norms, and begin rewriting the story — not with blame or shame, but with connection, accountability, and hope.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The presenting author declares no conflicts of interest. This presentation is supported by Healthier Illawarra Men and delivered in partnership with Tomorrow Man.
For more information on Healthier Illawarra Men you can view our website https://healthierillawarramen.org.au/ or visit our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@HealthierIllawarraMen