ABSTRACT:
*Introductions: Khayelitsha Eastern Sub-structure (KESS) in Cape Town, South Africa, is a disadvantaged community with increasingly high levels of community violence. Gendered workplace violence against health workers emerging from this broader community violence requires coordinated multi-stakeholder responses across multiple levels of government and community structures. The Imarisha Initiative partnered with the Community Policing Forum, Community Health Forum, Clinic committee and Area-Based Teams, among others, to support and co-mobilise strategic community responses to address gendered workplace violence. Established partnerships created opportunities to understand local contexts and structures and to co-develop participatory strategies for community entry and engagement. This workshop brings together representatives from these partner structures to share lessons on establishing effective multi-sectoral partnerships for health system strengthening through participatory, community-engaged approaches. *Methods This interactive workshop uses a panel-to-roundtable format to facilitate knowledge exchange among diverse stakeholders. A panel featuring representatives from government, academia and community forums will share experiences in collaborative partnership-building, capacity-strengthening processes, and navigating multi-government coordination. This will be followed by a facilitated roundtable discussion in three concurrent groups exploring: (1) Enablers and barriers to multi-level government collaboration in community-engaged research; (2) Strategies for equitable academic-civil society partnerships moving beyond extractive research relationships; and (3) Research as a vehicle for transformative community engagement and co-developing shared objectives that address gendered workplace violence. *Results and

CONCLUSIONS:
Participants will gain practical insights into building and sustaining multi-sectoral partnerships that centre community voices and address gendered workplace violence. Key lessons include navigating power dynamics across government levels, employing participatory and decolonial approaches to community engagement, and leveraging equitable research partnerships to strengthen primary health systems by addressing gendered workplace violence. The session will conclude with synthesised recommendations on partnership models to inform violence prevention and primary healthcare strengthening initiatives in similar contexts.