Projects

The project is the result of a  collaboration between the Southern Melbourne Family Violence Regional Integration Committee (SMFVRIC), Bayside Peninsula Integrated Family Violence Partnership (BPIFVP), Dandenong and Districts Aborigines Co-operative Limited (DDACL), Ngwala Willumbong Aboriginal Corporation (Ngwala), Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA) and Sue Radford (Ngarrindjeri woman, Mental Health Social Worker, Family Therapist & Specialist Family Violence Advisor)

The project will develop a training package and resources to improve the cultural understandings and skills of clinicians using the MARAM tools – to undertake culturally sensitive risk assessment screenings with First Nations people who are victims of family violence, strengthening:

1. Understanding of contextual history of how continued violence/ genocide/assimilation towards First Nations People continues to influence violence towards Aboriginal people in contemporary society.
2. Multi sector workforce’s understanding and implementation of culturally responsive MARAM assessments for all First Nations peoples, whether using the screening and assessment, brief and intermediate or comprehensive risk assessment and safety planning tools.
3. Connections to our Southern Region Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to facilitate secondary consultations, information sharing and community engagement opportunities.

The Building Our Workforce (BOW) project will work collaboratively with member agendice across the Soutnern melbourne Family Violence Regional Integration Committee and Bayside Peninsula Integrated Family Violence Partnership to collectively drive workforce attraction and retention iitiates across familly violence and sexual assault sectors.

Targeting practitioners at different stages of their career journey from student placements to more experienced professionals, the innovative non-salaried approaches to workforce attraction and retention being designed and piloted through the BOW project include:

• Centralised Regional Student Placement Program to attract Master of Social Work final year placement students and strengthen transitions into entry level positions. Consideration will be given to working with education providers and agencies to design a program that is culturally safe and addresses systemic barriers, particularly for students from CALD and First Nations backgrounds.
• Synchronised secondment program conceptualized to provide practice development and knowledge transfer opportunities across agencies for mid-career professionals.
• Wisom in Practice, centres lived experience through a reverse mentoring program for early career professionals. Victim survivor designed and led, this retention initiative addresses power, creates reflective practice and develops a client centred approach to practice.
• Regional Professional Development Calendar fostering professional development and practice collaboration to build a strong, connected and stable workforce across the region. With a diverse mix of agencies engaged in the project, this calendar provides an opportunity to capitalise on their expertise in areas such as intersectionality, trauma informed practice, working with person using violence and engaging with priority communities to the broader regional workforce.

Importantly, the BOW project works to build an evidence base for a cross agency collaborative approach, through the structure of the Family Violence RICs/Partnerships, to address workforce attraction and retention issues.

Read final report here

The new Crisis Response Model

A new Family Violence Crisis Response Model is being implemented by Family Safety Victoria (FSV) in 2023. The model aims to ensure that victim survivors in crisis are supported through coordinated responses which are consistent, clearly communicated, and jointly managed by the services involved. It prioritises the provision of local crisis support, where possible, in line with victim survivor choice and safety. The Crisis Response Model aims to enable:

• Victim survivors in crisis to receive immediate support and emergency accommodation, if required, no matter which specialist family violence service they access
• Victim survivors in emergency accommodation to have access to face-to-face support from a local family violence service, wherever they are accommodated and at any time of day or night.
• Victim survivors to be supported by, or connected to, a local family violence service when leaving emergency accommodation

The Local Motel Coordination (LMC) Projects

The Local Motel Coordination Projects have been funded by FSV and are being run across all Victorian DFFH Areas. The aim of these projects is to develop local inter-agency and cross sector strategies to address key challenges related to the use of motels for emergency accommodation for victim survivors of family violence.

These projects are to complement any existing local work related to the key objectives of the LMC projects and are to  build on statewide guidance developed by Safe and Equal (in partnership with Safe Steps).

The LMC projects are required to outline key considerations for motel placement and relationship management (guidance on identifying appropriate motels, establishing and maintaining relationships with moteliers, and managing issues and incidents).

The key objectives of the local projects are to:

• Support a more coordinated, DFFH Area-level approach to the utilisation of motels for family violence emergency accommodation by developing systems and information sharing processes (including inter-agency protocols etc.) between local agencies and with statewide services
• Develop DFFH-Area-level strategies to manage key risks and challenges related to identifying appropriate motel options and managing relationships with moteliers to increase access to suitable motel accommodation.
• Develop systems, information and resources to support:
  • safe and appropriate motel placements
  • management of relationships with moteliers which are sustainable beyond the funded project.

Project Facilitator – Bayside Peninsula

For any queries or to provide input into the project please contact Louise Sheehan, The Salvation Army via [email protected]

Timeline

The LMC Project ran from August 2022 to June 2023

Family Safety Victoria (FSV) has engaged the Bayside Peninsula Integrated Family Violence Partnership (BPIFVP) to create training programs on how to embed intersectionality into an organisation’s MARAM alignment activities, as per the finalised FSV Intersectionality Capability Building (ICB) resources.  These FSV resources include the “Embedding Inclusion and Equity: An Intersectionality Framework in Practice Handbook” which will be inclusive of Tip Sheets and ICB Tools.  FSV plans to publish the Handbook in early 2023.

The MICB project aims to identify, develop, and implement strategies and processes to support organisations to embed an intersectional lens into MARAM alignment activities through use of the FSV Intersectionality Capability Building tools.

Key Deliverables

The BPIFVP project is required to develop:

1. Team Leader-led Training Package
2. Executive Training Package

Team Leader-led Training

The Team Leader-led Training package is comprised of six, one-hour Modules. The package will be delivered within organisations by their Team Leaders and/or Practice Leads.

The six one-hour Modules are as follows:

1. Shared understanding of what intersectionality is and why it’s important
2. Critically reflect on your own values, beliefs, power and privilege
3. Fixed vs Growth Mindset: Embedding Intersectionality in service response
4. The MARAM Framework & Practice Guides, intersectionality & inclusive language
5. Intersectionality: Collaboration, referrals & secondary consults
6. Reflective Supervision & Self-care

Executive Training

The Executive Training is comprised one, one-hour Module. The training will be delivered to organisation’s executives and Board members.

The training has the following three learning objectives:

1. To explain the context of the MICB project
2. To broaden current understanding of:
   • what intersectionality is
   • inherent power and privilege individually, organisationally, systemically
   • why it is important to your organisation
   • start the conversation about how to adopt and embed an intersectional approach within your organisation
3. To support participants to develop measurable actions to adopt and embed an intersectional approach within their organisation, its policies, procedures and culture

Timeline

The MICB Project ran from September 2021 to November 2022