Save the date for this year’s Walk Against Family Violence on Friday 24 November. We’re excited to join the family violence sector and wider community for this meaningful annual event.
Read this statement on this year’s Walk from Safe Steps’ CEO Chelsea Tobin:
Respect Victoria will be hosting this important and unifying event for the family violence sector and all Victorians who support the vital work of preventing family violence.
This is Yoorrook’s second interim report. It considers systemic injustices in the child protection and criminal justice systems. It fulfils the requirement in the amended Letters Patent dated 4 April 2023 to deliver a second interim report by 31 August 2023.
A note on content: First People’s are advised that this report may contain photos, quotations and names of people who are deceased. This report discussed sensitive topics that some readers may find distressing. Yoorrooks urges you to consider how and when you read this report and what supports you might need.
Under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 (the National Plan), the Australian Government has released the First Action Plan 2023-2027, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan 2023-2025 and the Outcomes Framework 2023-2032.
For the first time, the Australian, state and territory governments have a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan. It was developed in partnership with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council on family, domestic, and sexual violence, and was informed through nationwide consultation with victim-survivors, community and sector representatives.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan acknowledges the disproportionate levels of violence, harm and trauma suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, children and gender diverse peoples. It recognises that solutions need to be led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and outlines government initiatives that will focus on addressing immediate safety needs, while laying the foundations for longer term change.
Click here to access the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan and Outcomes Framework
This training runs from 9:30am – 3:30pm. It is an interactive online training module that assists professionals to effectively identify, understand, and resist invitations to collude with men who use family violence.
This training is open to any professional who may interact with men who use intimate partner violence, but where the focus of their practice is not behaviour change work specifically. Family violence professionals who support victim survivors are also welcome to attend.
For queries, or to book an in-house fee-for-service session with your teams or regions, please email [email protected]
The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) is leading a consortium research team, including the Centre for Excellence for Child and Family Welfare (the Centre), Drummond Street Services, the Centre for Innovative Justice (CIJ) and Tjallara Consulting. Commissioned by the Department of Social Services (DSS), this consortium is investigating workforce requirements for work with young people who are using violence.
We are conducting a nation-wide survey to gain insight into practitioners’ levels of experience, knowledge and confidence in responding to young people (12-18 years) who are using – or at risk of using – violence, either in the home against parents/carers/siblings or in their intimate partner relationships.
This survey is looking for respondents all over Australia who are involved in any type of direct service with children, young people and families. Even if you don’t work with young people using violence, we would still like to hear from you!
The survey will take around 11 minutes. The information you provide us will be de-identified and summarised in a report and submitted to DSS.
The survey will remain open until Thursday 7 September 2023.
Please contact Anagha Joshi (Australian Institute of Family Studies) if you would like further information about this project.
There are inadequate resources available to support lesbian, gay, bi + , trans and gender diverse, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people experiencing family violence in Australia. Government funding agencies and mainstream family violence service providers regularly state that there is insufficient evidence to justify investment in more inclusive services.
This recently published research article explores practitioner perceptions of such claims and calls for more investment in research and data gathering about family violence against LGBTIQ people and provision of effective supports.
The dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan will work alongside the First Action Plan. It has been developed in genuine partnership with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council on family, domestic and sexual violence, and in recognition of the disproportionately high rates of family, domestic and sexual violence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience.
Click here to read Action Plan
The SHSN has launched a set of Fact Sheets full of useful stats and facts covering each local government area in their region.
The full set is also available on their website
Download one or all of the fact sheets here:
- Southern Regional overview
- Bayside
- Cardinia
- Casey
- Frankston
- Glen Eira
- Greater Dandenong
- Kingston
- Mornington Peninsula
- Port Phillip
- Stonnington
- Full set of fact sheets
This article examines the nature of risks and how they are experienced and challenged, through a case study analysis of the implementation of the Australian state of Victoria’s Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council. Analysing government reports and interviews with survivors and policymakers, the article investigates how the state asserts control over survivors under the guise of co-production, inadvertently compromising public value creation.
The Children’s Voices for Change project is seeking children and young people aged 10 to 25, who have lived experience of family violence, to take part in an online activity.
This project is being led by Southern Cross University, in partnership with Safe and Equal and the Centre for Excellence in Child & Family Welfare.
It is funded as part of the Victorian Government’s Family Violence Research Agenda 2021-2024.
The research project seeks to understand what constitutes effective supports for children and young people as victim-survivors of family violence in their own right.
This stage of the project involves research with children and young people with lived experience of family violence, through an anonymous, interactive online activity. This phase has been approved by Southern Cross University’s Human Research Ethics Committee (approval no. 2023/115).
The project is recruiting children and young people who:
- are 10 to 25 years old; and
- have experience accessing family violence support services in Victoria when they were up to 13 years old; and
- have an established relationship with a service or network; and
- are not currently in distress or crisis.
If you can help with identifying potential participants who meet these criteria, please share this opportunity. The online activity will be open until Friday 18 August.