Men’s behaviour change: a new model and increased funding

Men’s behaviour change: a new model and increased funding

Thursday 29 March 2018

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Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos has announced the release of a new and enhanced men’s behaviour change program model, alongside more than $9.1 million for additional places in men’s behaviour change programs and $2.3 million for men’s intake and referral services.

This investment will support the delivery of more than 4,000 community based men’s behaviour change places in 2018-19 – an increase of more than 500 places state-wide – to be delivered by 32 community organisations.

The new model, developed in consultation with No to Violence and Domestic Violence Victoria, responds to key recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Family Violence and includes:

  • Increasing behaviour change program duration from 12 to 20 weeks
  • Additional support for victim survivors and their families
  • Ensuring all family violence workers are able to share vital information with partner community services, such as specialist victims agencies
  • Greater coordination with the broader community services sector.

The Government has invested an additional $150,000 in No to Violence to help transition service providers to the new model and will support workforce development by funding 30 places in this year’s Graduate Certificate in Male Family Violence.

Page last updated Thursday, March 29 2018

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More Rapid Housing for Victims of Family Violence

More Rapid Housing for Victims of Family Violence

Thursday 29 March 2018

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Minister for Housing, Disability and Ageing Martin Foley has announced more than $4 million in new funding for the Rapid Housing Program. Under the program, homes are leased from private owners by community housing agencies, which sublet them to women and children at below market rent.

One in 10 applicants on the Victorian Housing Register priority list identifies family violence as a reason for seeking urgent housing assistance. The Rapid Housing Program focuses on areas with high incidences of family violence and offers stable accommodation for up to 12 months.

Page last updated Thursday, March 29 2018

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Temporary Migration and Family Violence Research

Temporary Migration and Family Violence Research

Thursday 29 March 2018

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A new research report, Temporary migration and family violence: An analysis of victimisation, support and vulnerability, was recently published by Monash University in partnership with inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence.

The report draws on a comprehensive review of the cases of 300 women experiencing family violence who had a temporary migration status and sought support from inTouch over 2015-16.The research documents the many ways in which migration status impacts women’s experiences of family violence and access to support, and offers recommendations towards ensuring that all women experiencing family violence are supported, regardless of their migration status.

Read more and view the full report

Page last updated Thursday, March 29 2018

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New training: Well-being, self-care and worker sustainability

New training: Well-being, self-care and worker sustainability

Thursday 22 March 2018

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Well-being, self-care and worker sustainability is essential training for Family Violence Specialists, Team Leaders and Managers, or anyone who works with family violence clients.

This one day training from DVRCV considers the needs of a sector that is experiencing unprecedented demand and rapid change and has been designed for Specialist Family Violence Practitioners in direct work and the Team Leaders and Practice Leads who support them. The training offers an opportunity to develop practical strategies and tools to assist with preserving ‘self’, while continuing to do complex and demanding work.

The day will cover the following topics:

  • Critiquing and reframing concepts of ‘self-care’, ‘worker burn-out’, and ‘compassion fatigue’.
  • Transformative nature of aligning values to the work you do to create meaning
  • Strategies for locating yourself within a broader system for change
  • How to manage the pace of change, the reforms and their impact on individual workloads
  • Develop a holistic tool to build a plan for well-being and sustainability
  • Utilising a feminist and trauma informed framework to understand the impact of the work
  • Strategies for professional and personal empowerment through the work
  • Importance of a mutual approach between worker and agency to enable support.

FIND OUT MORE

Page last updated Thursday, March 22 2018

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New Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme now operating in Victoria

New Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme now operating in Victoria

Thursday 1 March 2018

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The Family Violence Protection Amendment (Information Sharing) Act 2017 is now operating in Victoria.

The new Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme also enables other major reforms like the Support and Safety Hubs and Central Information Point to operate.

The Royal Commission into Family Violence and Coronial Inquest into the Death of Luke Geoffrey Batty identified barriers that prevent information about perpetrators from being shared effectively. It found the failure to share crucial information with family violence workers can have catastrophic consequences.

In response to these findings, the Labor Government introduced the Family Violence Protection Amendment (Information Sharing) Act 2017 in March last year.

The Act allows an authorised group of trusted government agencies and community service organisations to share information with each other for family violence risk assessment and risk management purposes.

The Act also removes the requirement in existing Victorian privacy legislation that a serious threat to an individual must also be imminent before information can be lawfully shared.

More than 500 practitioners and managers across priority workforces authorised under the Scheme have been trained, including women’s and men’s specialist family violence services, Child FIRST, community based Child Protection, Victoria Police, Courts Victoria and sexual assault support services.

Training will continue to be available in the coming months to ensure the new laws are implemented effectively.

Ministerial Guidelines, fact sheets and other tools relating to the new family violence legislation are available at vic.gov.au/familyviolence.

These reforms will align with the launch of the revised Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework later this year. Complimentary Child Information Sharing legislation recently passed the lower house.

Page last updated Thursday, March 1 2018

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