The Integrated Family Violence Partnerships of the Bayside Peninsula and Southern Melbourne DFFH Areas submitted their response to the Department of Social Services’ Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Program – Inclusion Round
On 3 November 2022, the Australia Government announced $100 million over 5 years (2022-23 to 2026-27) to continue the Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Program (Safe Places) for women and children leaving family and domestic violence (FDV). The continuation will be a second round of funding under Safe Places and will be known as the Safe Places Inclusion Round (Inclusion Round). This is a measure under the 2022-23 Women’s Safety Package and the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-32. The Inclusion Round will focus on improving access to appropriate emergency accommodation for:
- First Nations women and children;
- Women and children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds; and
- Women and children with disability.
Funding for the Inclusion Round will be delivered via an open and competitive grants process, with preference given to applications that increase accessibility by meeting the needs of women and children identified in the Inclusion Round.
Read our submission here
Council to Homeless Person’s magazine Parity is calling for contributions under the theme “Safe at Home”, exploring the family violence response principles, policies and programs in which women and children experiencing family violence are able to remain safely in their home. CHP has developed a framework for discussion with guiding questions to support contributors. The content deadline is COB Friday 10 March 2023. Contributions can be up to 1,600 words. Submissions to be sent to [email protected]
Read more about the call for contribution here
This report produced by AIFS and ANROWS sets out insights from three parts of a four-part research program which summarises the views of legal professionals and judicial officers. The report sets out findings from contravention matter court file analysis, an online survey of separated parents with parenting orders and an analysis of international approaches, and synthesises findings from all four parts of the research.
Among other things, it finds a lack of mechanisms in the family law system to monitor the implementation of parenting orders, and that the family law system is not well equipped to adapt to issues with parenting orders either.
The Lighthouse model is an innovative approach dedicated to helping families navigate the family law system with a focus on risk screening.
The Lighthouse model is an innovative approach taken by the Courts to screen for and manage risk, with a primary focus on improving outcomes for families involved in the family law system.
The Lighthouse model was initially piloted in the Adelaide, Brisbane and Parramatta family law registries, and has now been expanded to include all 15 family law registries for parenting and parenting and financial cases, as follows: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Dandenong, Darwin, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Rockhampton, Sydney, Townsville and Wollongong.
This research project investigated the experiences of young people who had been abused by a partner when under the age of 18.
This report was compiled to inform the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. It presents data on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, queer and asexual (LGBTQA+) people with disability in Australia. These data are from two large national online surveys, Writing Themselves In 4 and Private Lives 3, which were conducted in 2019. Writing Themselves In 4 focused on young people aged 14-21 years and Private Lives 3 focused on adults aged 18 years and older.
Transforming responses to intimate partner and sexual violence: Listening to the voices of victims, perpetrators and services.
This large-scale national project (the “Voices” study) captures the experiences and perspectives of victims and survivors, people who use violence, and service providers. By building an understanding of help-seeking journeys, this project has addressed a gap in the evidence base which has previously been limited to discrete contexts of help-seeking, such as emergency departments, primary healthcare providers and the court system.
The broader view of the help-seeking journey in this study informs service design and policy responses across service systems. The study was a collaboration between the Safer Families Centre for Research Excellence at the University of Melbourne and ANROWS.
EDVOS, an acronym for Eastern Domestic Violence Outreach Service has served the community since 1994. As society and our community has changed over time, so too has EDVOS. In response to those societal changes, major reform and policy leadership in Victoria and an evolving level of understanding and expectations of family violence and gender inequity, EDVOS recognised an opportunity to refocus their brand and identity towards the future.
The team arrived at their new name, FVREE and identity through a process of consultation with stakeholders, staff and victim survivors. This video provides a snapshot of some context.
FVREE still provide the same support services in the same way and more recently through the Orange Door. Their new web address is www.fvree.org.au and their contact numbers remain unchanged.
Survivors of family violence are often left with limited housing options once they leave the relationship. PCLC have seen many examples of women settling for less than half the joint property value where assets are held only in the name of their partner and the women are unaware of their legal rights over the property. At least 5% of our family law clients in the past year came to us with evidence of property ownership, but none were able to retain this post financial settlement and were often forced into seeking social housing.
Through a pilot program completed earlier this year, PCLC assisted women affected by family violence to access a more equitable share of assets. During the pilot, a total of 43 women were assisted, with 20 receiving ongoing support and a monetary benefit of $1,177,673 resulting in significant financial stability to the families involved. While PCLC is continuing to provide legal assistance to a small number of women with small pool property claims, at present we only have limited ability to assist.
PCLC is advocating for additional funding for legal and financial planning support for women who have survived family violence and are in the process of financial separation. PCLC is also advocating that the federal government makes good on a pre-election promise to establish a shared equity scheme to help people on moderate incomes to secure home loans with the government taking a stake in the property, and that these women be targeted as priority beneficiaries.
In October, Peninsula Community Legal Centre commenced providing legal services at Frankston Orange Door, the Victorian government family violence services hub. The demand for legal assistance for victim survivors of family violence has continued to rise due to an increase in the rate of family violence and significant backlogs of family violence matters in the Magistrates Court as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Victorian Federation of Community Legal Centres is advocating for community legal services to be embedded in the Orange Door network across the state to meet this rising demand.