In mid-January 1991, the first official meeting of the founding members took place at the Mainz police headquarters. In attendance were the

• City Women's Office,
• the emergency hotline for raped women and girls e.V.: today Frauennotruf Mainz – specialist center for sexual violence,
• the girls' shelter FemMa e. V.: today Das MädchenHaus Mainz gGmbH
• Criminal Investigation Department 12: now K2, and
• the special department at the Mainz public prosecutor's office responsible for violence against women and children: today the department for violence against children and women (including domestic violence).

This form of networking between autonomous women's projects and authorities was a real novelty for Rhineland-Palatinate in the fight against violence against women and children.

Even though the names of almost all of the founding members have changed, the goals and tasks of the Working Group on Violence against Women and Children have remained the same over the last three decades.

"[...] The aim is to establish an exchange of information and experience, to develop concepts for prevention and combating violence, and to discuss the political goals of the women's movement."
From the AK Gewalt's 1995 self-description

In its very first year of existence, the five founding institutions agreed on seven central tasks for the Working Group on Violence, which are still valid today with almost no changes:

• Networking
• Exchange of information
• Public relations
• Prevention
• Victim protection
• Unbureaucratic assistance for victims
• Further training

In 1991 and the years that followed, the main focus was on expanding support for women affected by violence in line with their needs. Today, the representatives of the working group are particularly focused on identifying and closing gaps in the support services developed in recent years—and on further optimizing (existing) cooperation in the area of prevention.

Then as now, AK Gewalt does not see itself as a closed society; "newcomers" from work with female victims of violence were welcome from the outset and remain so today.

The Women's Office took over the leadership of the working group back in the 1990s. This has remained the case to this day, although since 2014 a team of moderators has been taking turns to chair the working group's meetings. In 2014, the working group on violence gave itself a new profile in order to make its joint work more binding, results-oriented, and sustainable.

The AK Gewalt will continue to be an important instrument in combating violence against women in Mainz for many years to come. Its work is indispensable as long as the power imbalance and economic inequality between men and women persist.