This is my first role after my social work degree.

I commenced my employment with Safe Steps as an Intake and Assessment worker in March 2019 following the completion of my Masters of Social Work degree. In 2020, whilst working part-time at Safe Steps, I started another part-time role as a Case Manager with InTouch, which is a specialist family violence service that works with women from migrant and refugee backgrounds. However, over time it became difficult to manage two highly demanding jobs at the same time and I decided to return to Safe Steps in a full-time capacity at the start of 2021. I have recently also started a causal role with VICSEG New Futures training as a Family Violence Trainer.

I didn’t have family violence in mind when I was doing my degree.

I completed my final social work placement at Centrelink and that’s where my interest in family violence services started growing. What drives me to work every day is the desire and passion to help and to be there when someone needs that immediate support. I consider myself a small part of a big puzzle that clients have to navigate through while they’re trying to get out of their abusive and violent relationships. I believe that I help my clients put together some of the pieces of that puzzle at the very start of their journey out of their abusive relationships and that’s what drives me to work – being there in the initial stages of someone’s journey.

A typical day for me as a crisis response worker.

My typical day at Safe Steps mainly involves answering crisis phone calls, actioning referrals and responding to emails from clients and other service providers. While I’m answering phone calls or responding to emails, I provide a crisis response to clients including immediate psychosocial and emotional support and psycho-education. As an intake worker, I predominantly undertake family violence risk assessments, create safety plans, organise crisis accommodation, refer clients to their local family violence services for ongoing support and case management programs and liaise with other services providers. This can include advocating to the police to help someone collect their belongings from their home, with hospitals to assist with discharge planning or with housing services to secure accommodation access for clients. As a part of my role, I also provide secondary consultation to external stakeholders including Child Protection, schools, disability service providers, employers and other community workers, providing them with advice on how they can best support their clients. Or it could be a call from friends and family who wants to know what they can do to support someone they know who is going through an abusive relationship.

There are challenges in my role, particularly burnout.

The most challenging aspect of my role is that it is highly demanding and can lead to burnout. The constant exposure to clients’ trauma can become overwhelming at times. However, improved self-awareness, maintaining a good work-life balance, pursuing my hobbies, regular debriefing and supervision, and accessing EAP support have proven to be quite beneficial in managing my stress and burnout.

Apart from burnout, I find it quite challenging that access to support and services is limited for clients with temporary visas, particularly housing, welfare payments and employment and education opportunities. It means that some women on temporary visas may not leave their abusive relationships due to a lack of support options available to them and continue to experience family violence which is heartbreaking. There is definitely a need for more advocacy and support in this area so that women on temporary visa experiencing family violence can be better protected and supported.

There are times when I have been shocked by the details of the actual family violence.

You never know what to expect. What I didn’t expect when I graduated was how bad the details of the violence were going to be. I am still sometimes in disbelief that someone would treat someone else the way they have. However, with time and experience, I’m less shocked with details than I used to be when I started working in the sector.

As an individual, I have grown a lot.

Working in the family violence sector, I’ve grown as a person and professional. I think I have more of an understanding of how the world operates – what’s okay, and what’s not okay. I have used the knowledge gained working in the sector to support friends and family with their relationship issues.

There are multiple factors within this complex system and sometimes I feel there are not enough options for everyone. I particularly find it challenging when I feel I’m unable to meet client’s expectations and that’s hard to sit with.

I have realised that there are limitations to what I can do for someone and often seek comfort in the concept of ‘Radical Acceptance’- it is what it is. I’m trying to focus on what I’m able to do and the difference I’m able to make to someone’s circumstances within the capacity of my role.

What led you onto a career path in family violence?

This is my first job in the sector since completing a Master of Public Policy. I didn’t intentionally set out on a career in family violence but after completing my university placement at Gender Equity Victoria, the seed was sown. Family violence is very much grounded in politics, sociology, and psychology, and because I’d studied politics at university, and loved it, the work really resonated with me.

I applied for this role at Safe Steps because I wanted to have on the ground experience and work in an organisation that deals directly with clients and other services. In the future when my knowledge base is stronger and I’m more confident and experienced in the sector, I’d like to move into a policy role.

What skills do you need to work as a family violence crisis response support worker?

You need to be very flexible, have good time management skills and an ability to prioritise and juggle competing demands. You also need to have good organisational skills. My role involves providing support to the case management and the intake and assessment teams. It’s very logistical and administrative, and involves everything from paying invoices, data entry, to doing more hands-on work like booking accommodation, sourcing material and items for clients.

Can you describe a day in the life of a crisis response support worker?

Safe Steps is a crisis service so no one day is like the next. Mornings typically involve sourcing emergency accommodation for our clients. We review on a day-by-day basis because a client’s case plans can change so quickly.

The rest of the day involves everything from invoicing, getting food vouchers and material aid to women and children in accommodation. I also work closely with the case managers to resolve any issues that arise at the hotel. This can be as simple as a client needing more pillows, or it might involve working on a crisis situation that is happening for her where she is staying.

What have been some of the highlights and challenges of your role?

The highlight has been learning firsthand about the nature and complexities of family violence. Hearing and learning about client’s experiences and listening to the incredible knowledge from the case management team and our managers is so rewarding.

My main challenge is learning how to create more boundaries with my work. As a support worker you get a lot of requests so it’s important to know how and when to respond appropriately to them. It can also be challenging hearing about what our clients have been through, as well as negotiating the relationship between other services in the sector.

What has been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Safe Steps clients?

Women and children were in our service a lot longer than they normally would be because there were limited exit options for them. We also had women reaching out for the first time and the complexity of clients increased. We also had an expectation that there’d be a lot more calls, but the reality was that it was difficult for some women to make those calls because they didn’t have the space and time away from their perpetrators to reach out to us. This led to Safe Steps establishing a new online webchat function. We’ve had some incredible outcomes with that, it’s brought women into our service who normally wouldn’t access it. It’s also been incredibly useful in providing basic information to women and doing safety planning with them.

What advice do you have for anyone wanting to start a career in the family violence sector?

You just need to be passionate and compassionate, and have resilience. It is a sector that values a broad range of skills and experience whether that’s academic, lived or cultural. Just put what you have on the table and be open to connecting with others in the sector. It’s definitely rewarding.

Tell us about your career in the family violence sector, and what inspired you to take on your current role at Wombat housing support services?

AS: I undertook a project for EDVOS for my final social work placement and this really set the scene for my career in the family violence sector. That project looked at how to get young people more engaged with services. After graduating I worked at EDVOS as an intake specialist family violence advisor. Whilst there I also took on the LGBTI portfolio. When my current role at Wombat came up, it was the amalgamation of everything I had been doing over the past few years and combined all of my passions together.

How have LGBTI people been discriminated against and how has the service system let them down?

AS: There hasn’t always been a great understanding of the nature of power and control and the use of violence within LGBTI relationships, especially when gender is not the defining factor. This lack of understanding has played out in LGBTI people’s experiences of services. For example, police have sometimes trivialised LGBTI people’s experiences of intimate partner violence, with responses like “Oh well, it’s just two women, what’s the harm? What can they really do to each other?” And with men, it’s like “they’re both men, they can fight it out.”

Non-binary people and trans women have, historically, been denied services because they haven’t been seen as real women or haven’t appeared feminine enough. Visual identity is important for non-binary people and trans women, and they often experience discrimination when those markers don’t live up to feminine ideals. Being homeless, for example, doesn’t allow them access to the privileges of appearance, where they’re able to access things like hormones, clothing and razors that enable them to visibly present their identity.

Many services have a poor understanding of where to refer LGBTI people. The LGBTI community is a small community, some people do not want to access an LGBTI specific service out of fear of being recognised. This makes it important for mainstream organisations to understand the needs of LGBTI people. Whilst displaying the rainbow or trans flag is important, it needs to go beyond that. If it just stops at the door, that’s even more damaging because it’s lulling people into a false sense of security.

How is the LGBTI Homelessness and Family Violence Project addressing some of the systemic gaps that LGBTI people experience?

AS: The project focuses on building the capacity of the housing and homelessness sector to be able to understand the specific needs and experiences of LGBTI people and to be able to respond to those needs. It’s about bridging the gap between the homelessness, housing and family violence sectors through a whole range of capacity building activities such as training and resource development, and working collaboratively.

Many young people have gone through the service system and never once been asked if they identify as LGBTI. This has huge implications for their safety and wellbeing. We’ve been developing ways that housing and homelessness services can create safety for LGBTI people. For example, vetting accommodation so that it’s safer and fits their needs. We’ve also developed risk assessment and safety planning processes and a checklist. So when someone is looking at placing a client in accommodation, what should they consider? This might include things like checking how safe the area is in terms of neighbours, or other residents if it’s a refuge or transitional housing. Are staff educated in LGBTI best practice? How close is their accommodation to the specific services they need? Can they easily connect with their local LGBTI community?

What about the role of collaboration across different sectors?

AS: Collaborating is crucial. There’s often been discrepancies in some of the understandings or the ways in which family violence services work compared with how homelessness services work. We’ve been working more closely together to navigate differences in terms of risk assessment and to enable a clearer pathway for LGBTI people.

Our current focus is on family of origin violence and the homelessness that LGBTI people can experience as a result of that. So we are developing partnerships with child protection, residential, foster and kinship care services. These are really overstretched services so it’s hard to ask people to all of a sudden consider these new priorities. But I’m hoping that the project will provide the support needed and then we can advocate for there to be dedicated specialist LGBTI/homelessness roles that can do this work collaboratively with the other services.

What have been some of the highlights in your current role?

AS: I get to work directly with young people who have found their own journey of discovery with their identity, and also the hardships that they’ve come from. The resilience that these young people have is so inspiring. I’ve loved working with them and hearing their stories. I’ve also loved the collaborative process of working with other agencies.

When I conduct surveys or ask for feedback from people who have participated in the project, I get so many passionate and detailed responses. It really makes me feel that this is an area people really want to learn about and make change.

What drives you to work in the family violence sector?

AS: After falling into work in the family violence sector, I’ve fallen in love with it. I don’t see myself working outside of family violence anytime soon. I really love that this sector is so rapidly changing and adapting to the needs of people.

New safety hubs will be established in Melbourne’s south and inner-east, Ovens Murray, Wimmera South-West and Outer Gippsland.

Establishing accessible support and safety hubs in each of Victoria’s 17 DHHS regions was a key recommendation that came out of Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence.

Branded as the ‘Orange Door’, these hubs are intended to bring specialist family violence and perpetrator services, family services and Aboriginal services together under one roof, and aim to make it easier for people affected by family violence to access the holistic support they need.

Five hubs have been set up so far, but an Auditor-General’s report tabled in May found they are ‘not yet reaching their full potential.’ The report also raised concerns that future Orange Doors will not be ‘fully prepared to support clients’ or be able to demonstrate better outcomes for families.

In light of the new Orange Door sites being announced, Domestic Violence Victoria (DV Vic) has called on government to work collaboratively with DV Vic and other peak bodies to address these shortcomings and increase the positive impact current and new Orange Door hubs will have.

“Our member specialist family violence services are keen to work with Family Safety Victoria in this next phase of Support and Safety Hub implementation. We call on Government to involve and collaborate with DV Vic and other key peak bodies to resolve critical issues with the Hub model prior to these next five sites being established,” said DV Vic CEO Tania Farha.

“Addressing the concerns of peak bodies and service providers will strengthen the impact of these new Hubs as well as the existing ones. As a result, victim survivors will be safer and perpetrators will be kept in view,” Ms Farha added.

To date, almost 100,000 Victorians have been referred or directly sought help for family violence at an Orange Door hub.

Check out the Victorian Government press release here and Domestic Violence Victoria’s response here. 

See the Auditor-General’s report on Managing Support and Safety Hubs here. 

Visit orangedoor.vic.gov.au/ for more information about the Orange Door network. 

To celebrate the launch, we recently spoke with DV Vic’s Senior Practice Development Advisor, Erin Davis, about the redevelopment process and how the Code’s principles and standards will guide better responses to victim survivors of family violence across Victoria.

In an ideal world, how would this resource be used by specialist family violence practitioners?

ED: I think this question is really good because it reflects how people maybe initially understand the Code: as something you give to a practitioner. Of course, the Code is for practitioners to use, but actually, it is first and foremost for service leaders to implement into their organisations. Leaders can use the Code and its audit tool to do continuous quality improvement work, compare service design against standards and indicators, and then make action plans when improvements are needed within their own contexts. Services can bring the Code into their strategic planning and value-setting work, to redevelop policies, procedures, education, training and induction programs for staff.

In their day-to-day practice, practitioners can also use the Code for their own self-reflection, to work through ethical dilemmas or to think about their practice capabilities.

Importantly, leaders and practitioners can also use the Code for systemic advocacy. It can be used to promote understanding of the sector and advocate for the rights of victim survivors.

Can you tell us about the process involved in redeveloping the Code? 

ED: It started at the end of 2018 and ran all way across 2019. First, we unpacked the previous Code and identified what we wanted to maintain and bring into the second edition. We then undertook a literature review, drawing on contemporary guidelines, standards and research into good practice responses and analysed those.

We also looked at how we needed to map this new Code with legislation and policy frameworks that had evolved since the first edition in 2006 and, in particular, since the Royal Commission into Family Violence. We wanted to make sure the new Code reflected the essence of other frameworks like the Human Services Standards, Child Safe Standards, Equal Opportunity guidelines for family violence services and MARAM.

What about engagement and consultation processes? 

ED: A lot of participatory engagement processes were set up. We established an advisory group that consisted of representatives from specialist family violence services, an academic advisor, as well as key partners – including DVRCV, NTV and Family Safety Victoria. That group met at key points during the development of the Code and was very actively involved in co-designing it, which was awesome. Regular discussion and consultation was also held with the Specialist Family Violence Services Group and the Refuge Roundtable, which are key networks convened by DVVic.

I also travelled around the State and ran focus groups and interviews with practitioners and victim survivor advisory groups. We were able to really benefit from asking them how they felt about the content being developed and what key messages they wanted conveyed to the sector. I think that was a really critical piece in developing the Code.

What is the value of this resource? How will it benefit Victoria’s specialist family violence sector? 

ED: I would say the value of this resource is in its ultimate, overarching purpose: to guide consistent quality service provision for victim survivors who are accessing specialist family violence services.

Of course, the specialist violence sector is already doing many of the things that are in the Code – after all the Code came from them! But it’s just going to take things to a next stage of development.

What are the key ways the new Code builds on the original 2006 version? 

ED: The second edition builds on the first by providing principle-based standards and indicators that act as a roadmap services can use to self-audit, action plan and do continuous quality improvement work.

It also expands on the foundational feminist, human rights and social justice frameworks used in the original Code. While those frameworks all still underpin it, the new Code also brings in a strong intersectional feminist framework. Throughout the development process, the intersectional feminist framework – time and time again – came through as the primary way of thinking the sector wanted to see reflected across specialist family violence services.

This framework helps us understand the complex ways in which family violence interacts with gender-based oppression, with homophobia, with transphobia, ableism, ageism and many other forms of oppression. Those forms of oppression are exploited by people who use violence. They perpetuate discriminatory service responses. And ultimately, all of that exacerbates the harm that victim survivors experience.

What is your message to other services involved in the family violence response? Is this resource useful for them as well?

ED: The Code is primarily designed for the specialist family violence service sector, but I think it’s definitely a resource that would be useful for other non-specialist services.

Many have an important role to play in family violence response. Tier 2-4 services can use the Code as a quality improvement resource, just as specialist family violence services would do. That means not just handing the Code over to individuals responding to family violence, but using it at that leadership level in self-auditing and strategic planning discussions.

If an organisation has one family violence practitioner or as small local family violence response program, the Code is for them too. A key challenge is ensuring the Code reaches those parts of the sector.

Download DV Vic’s new Code of Practice.

If you need assistance navigating and using the Code, contact DV Vic for guidance and support.

Are you responsible for embedding the DV Vic Code of Practice into your organisation? Join DV Vic’s Implementation Champions Group!

This group will support professionals in funded specialist family violence services who are responsible for embedding the Code of Practice, MARAMIS and the future Service Model in their organisations. To learn more about this group and how you can join, click here.

As many parts of Victoria move to Stage 4 restrictions, it’s a critical time to reflect on how measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 impact the incidence of family violence and how professionals can overcome challenges associated with supporting victim survivors under lockdown.

The Monash Gender and Family Violence Centre recently published a research report capturing the voices and experiences of 166 Victorian practitioners supporting women experiencing violence during Victoria’s initial COVID-19 shutdown period.

The responses, collected through an anonymous online survey between April and May 2020, are insightful, inspiring and informative. Here’s a summary of the key findings.

More frequent, more severe violence

Among the practitioners surveyed, 59% of respondents reported that COVID-19 has increased the frequency of violence against women, while 50% said it has increased the severity. 42% of respondents reported an increase in women experiencing family violence for the first time.

As violence has become more frequent and severe, women’s support needs have become increasingly complex. Over three quarters of respondents reported an increase in case complexity and 55% reported a significant increase.

Enhanced tactics of control

Practitioners also highlighted that perpetrators are using new forms of violence and “enhanced tactics” to control, coerce and socially isolate victim survivors during the pandemic.

These tactics include weaponising the COVID-19 restrictions and using the threat of infection to control women’s movements and decision-making power. As one practitioner articulated:

Additional barriers to support

In addition to impacting the prevalence and nature of family violence, the pandemic has also diminished women’s capacity to reach out for support. In particular, practitioners were concerned by increased perpetrator surveillance over victim survivor’s devices and online activity, restricting their ability to safely contact support services. As one practitioner voiced:

Another shared:

According to the report, lockdown measures have also further isolated victim survivors from their usual support networks, increasing the overall invisibility of their victimisation.

Overcoming challenges posed by lockdown 

Across the sector, services and professionals are working in new, innovative ways to continue safely reaching and delivering support to at-risk women during COVID-19. A few innovative approaches to service delivery professionals shared via the survey include:

• Integrating family violence support into “essential services” that have remained open through lockdown periods, including GP clinics, Centrelink and childcare centres.
• Creating new alert systems victim survivors can use if in trouble or in need of support.
• Partnering with all-women rideshare company, Shebah, to provide safe transport and deliveries to women and children experiencing family violence.
• Getting clients to provide virtual “house tours” to provide more information to support risk assessment and safety planning.
• Using alternative phone solutions that do not require app downloads to devices, such as Gruveo.
• Utilising video streaming technologies such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and WhatsApp to connect with clients and do virtual risk assessments and safety planning.

Implications for professionals’ wellbeing

The research also drew attention to the effects COVID-19 has had on practitioners’ wellbeing. Several respondents reported that – since shifting to remote service delivery – the lines between work and home had become increasingly blurred, making it harder to “switch off” after a day of work. As one respondent shared:

Others mentioned that adapting to new modes of service delivery when family violence is increasing in severity and frequency has created additional work-induced stress. In the words of one practitioner:

If you’re struggling at the moment, remember there are particular services and people in your organisation you can lean on for wellbeing support. Check out this section of The Lookout for information on what supports are available to you.  

To learn more about this research project, and read the entire report for yourself, click here. 

For more information and resources to support your practice during COVID-19, check out our COVID-19 and family violence section. 

In Victoria, the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) framework is used to ensure all services are effectively, collaboratively and consistently responding to family violence risk.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted MARAM reforms on multiple fronts – from what needs to be considered during risk assessments and safety planning, to the delivery of MARAM training, and the speed at which MARAM reforms are being rolled out.

To help you wrap your head around everything you need to know, we have put together a concise summary of key MARAM-related developments (as of July 7th 2020) below.

Resources to support MARAM risk assessment and management

Victim survivors are facing increased family violence risk and barriers to support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recognising this, Family Safety Victoria (FSV) have developed a series of “MARAM Practice Note” resources. These outline the minimum steps professionals – across men’s behaviour change, specialist family violence, key support agencies, and mainstream and universal services – must take when responding to family violence during the pandemic.

They can be downloaded via The Lookout’s MARAM practice notes page.

MARAM training for experienced family violence practitioners

All specialist family violence professionals in Victoria must complete MARAM training.

The Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria has recently begun delivering its MARAM Renewing Practice training online. This training is suitable for experienced family violence specialists who have extensive experience and have previously completed specialist CRAF training. You can learn more and sign up to this training via DVRCV’s training website.

MARAM training for non-specialist services

The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare has also started delivering online MARAM training to select allied workforces. These include:

• MARAM Brief & Intermediate level training for Child FIRST, family services, alcohol and other drug, homelessness and mental health workers.
• MARAM Screening & Identification level training for care services.
• MARAM Screening & Identification training for maternal child health workers.

You can find out more about this training and whether it’s relevant to you here.

Information sharing entities database

Information sharing is one way in which services can work together to keep victim survivors safe and hold perpetrators accountable under the MARAM Framework.

FSV have developed a database that compiles a list of organisations prescribed under the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme and Child Information Sharing Scheme.

The database also tells you what kind of information sharing entity (ISE) they are, including whether they are risk assessment entity or a central contact point for information requests.  The database will be updated in regular intervals but is not a live list.

Remember: as per the Ministerial Guidelines, if you do not have an existing relationship with someone requesting information,  continue to verify their identity before sharing anything with them (e.g. by asking them to send an email from their official work account or by calling their switchboard at their organisation).

If an organisation’s contact information isn’t stored in the database, refer to the organisation’s website for public contact details.

If you are not sure if you or another organisation is prescribed, call the Information Sharing and MARAM Enquiry Line 1800 549 646 or email infosharing@familysafety.vic.gov.au

Resources to support MARAM alignment

Prescribed organisations and services are required to ensure their policies, procedures, practice guidance and tools are aligned with the MARAM framework.

Recognising the diverse obstacles organisations are facing at the moment, FSV have developed a factsheet for organisational leaders on how to do MARAM alignment as part of business continuity planning in the COVID-19 context. The factsheet is available here.

An update on reform implementation

The MARAM Framework and Information Sharing Schemes are being rolled out in gradual phases.

FSV has recently announced that due to COVID-19, phase two of implementation will be delayed until the first half of 2021. This next phase will see universal workforces – such as hospitals and health and education workforces – prescribed under the framework.

To stay up to date with the progress of the reform implementation, sign up to FSV’s e-newsletter.

For more information on MARAM developments, plus access to MARAM tools and resources, go to the Victorian Government’s website.

From today, Victorians who are experiencing increased family violence risk as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic will have their applications prioritised and fast-tracked through the Family Courts.

Once lodged, urgent applications will be triaged by a dedicated registrar and heard by a judge in the Family Court or Federal Circuit Court within 72 hours.

Urgent applications concerning supervised contact with children arrangements, or children being unable to travel between carers due to current border restrictions, will also be fast-tracked.

The Courts have taken this action after recording a surge in urgent applications over March and April. The Family Court of Australia saw a 39% increase in urgent applications, while the Federal Circuit Court recorded a 23% increase.

Some women’s legal services have also reported an increase in people seeking help since the lockdowns have been enforced.

Will Alstergren, Chief Justice of the Family Court and Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court, said the new system is designed to ensure cases requiring urgent attention during this volatile period are identified and dealt with more quickly.

“It is important that these urgent COVID-19 applications are closely managed on a national basis so that they can be heard as swiftly as possible given the unprecedented circumstances we are facing,” he said in a statement. 

In order to simplify the process, parties will be able to lodge their paperwork electronically and attend their hearing using teleconferencing software.

These new measures will be in place for at least three months.

Referring clients to legal support 

If you are supporting someone who is experiencing violence and wishes to access legal advice or apply for an intervention order, let them know that both legal services and courts are still operating during the pandemic.

The Women’s Legal Service provides free confidential legal information, advice, representation and referral to women, and will continue to provide all of its legal services during the COVID-19 pandemic, although some will be delivered in a modified format.

Victoria Legal Aid and community legal centres are still offering legal advice over the phone and their duty lawyer services are still operating at Magistrates’ Courts across Victoria.

Djirra’s Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Service is also still providing phone support to victim survivors plus representation in court matters.

For information and advice on how to effectively refer a client to legal support and other support services, see this MARAM resource on the Victorian Government’s website.

To see the Family Court of Australia’s full media release, click here.

If you are experiencing violence, require any support, or know someone who does, contact 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Safe Steps (1800 015 188). 

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.

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.

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

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.

The Victoria Against Violence (VAV) — 16 Days of Activism campaign commences on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25 November 2017 and concludes on International Human Rights Day 10 December 2017.

Now in its third year, the 16 day initiative seeks to turn Victoria’s attention to the devastating impact that family violence has on the lives of so many. It brings together families, businesses, students, community centres and organisations from across the state for one common purpose: to unite to end violence against women and girls and to educate the community about the key role that gender inequality plays in causing family violence and all forms of violence against women.

Find out more and view events calendar.

On August 25, Acting Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence Jenny Mikakos announced $10.2 million to train healthcare workers across Victoria to identify and support patients experiencing family violence.

More than 3,000 hospital staff have already received training.

The funding boost will expand that training to thousands more health workers at all 88 public health services across Victoria – giving hospitals the tools and skills to ensure family violence victims don’t fall through the gaps.

The Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence initiative teaches workers to see the warning signs, respond sensitively and respectfully, and connect victims to the services and the support they need, sooner.

Read Victorian Government media release.

In response to the findings of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, the Victorian Government has committed to redeveloping the Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (commonly referred to as the CRAF). The redeveloped Framework will be enabled by new information sharing laws that allow services to share information that helps them effectively assess and manage family violence risks.

To support whole-of-system embedding of the redeveloped Framework, a series of stakeholder consultations are being conducted to better understand the likely impact of reform on each service sector and inform the government’s training and change management strategies.

Family Safety Victoria are seeking to consult with the following types of staff:

• front-line practitioners; i.e. individuals with direct client or patient contact who may have a role in identifying, assessing or managing family violence risk, including safety planning and information sharing;
• organisational leaders and people managers with responsibility for workforce and organisational development and support.

Consultation sessions will be held with the following sectors: hospital & paramedics, community health & aged care, general practitioners, allied health, mental health & alcohol and other drug services, community housing services, DHHS housing services & homelessness services, disability services – adults & children, Specialist FV services for women and children, sexual assault services, services for people who use violence, child protection & youth justice, out of home care & Child FIRST/Family Services, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, telephone helplines, legal services, corrections, Victoria Police, court staff, justice service centres, sheriffs & financial counsellors, victim support agency, schools and area based health and wellbeing staff, early childhood & early parenting centres.

Register here for a consultation session. Sessions will be limited to a maximum of 12 people.

Minister for Equality Martin Foley has announced $3 million over four years to develop comprehensive specialist services for LGBTI Victorians who experience or are at risk of experiencing family violence. This adds to the $1 million allocated for the initiative in 2016/17.

The funding will support family violence referral, counselling and support, peer support, early intervention and perpetrator intervention programs. This work will involve secondary consultation to mainstream family violence organisations across Victoria.

Supported by the Victorian LGBTI Taskforce, the services will bring together expertise from the LGBTI and family violence sectors to provide increased support for Victoria’s LGBTI communities.

Read full media release

The Support and Safety Hub Statewide Concept outlines the role the hubs will have in the Victorian government’s long-term plan to end family violence in Victoria.

The establishment of the Support and Safety Hubs was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Family Violence.

The initial roll-out of the hubs will commence later this year across five launch sites in Barwon, Bayside Peninsula, Inner Gippsland, Mallee and North-East Melbourne areas.

The newly established Family Safety Victoria will lead the establishment of the hubs and integrate them into the existing family support network.

The Support and Safety Hub Statewide Concept outlines the role the hubs will have in the Victorian government’s long-term plan to end family violence in Victoria.

The Victorian government has appointed Sue Clifford as Chief Executive Officer of its new family violence agency, Family Safety Victoria.

From 1 July, Family Safety Victoria will be responsible for driving and delivering the government’s $1.9 billion action plan to end family violence.

As Victoria’s first-ever agency dedicated solely to family violence reform, Family Safety Victoria will lead the implementation of new initiatives, including establishing the Central Information Point that will allow police, courts and government services to track perpetrators and keep victims safe.

It will also be responsible for establishing the Centre for Workforce Excellence and 17 Support and Safety Hubs across the state, to give women and children the coordinated support they need to recover.

Read the Victorian government media release.