Action Research Support – WA project summaries

WA

Doors to Safety (ARS project 13)

Women’s Community Health Network 

Project contact: Alison Evans

The Doors to Safety project aims to improve safety for women with disabilities experiencing violence in Western Australia. The key objectives are to:

• Raise awareness of the issue of violence against women with disabilities in the community and amongst service providers.
• Foster appropriate community and service provider responses to women with disabilities experiencing violence.
• Begin to build pathways to safety for women with disabilities experiencing violence
• Provide information that enables women with disabilities to identify and recognise violence in their lives as unacceptable and a crime.

The project is divided into five parts and will include a symposium to progress pathways to safety for women with disabilities experiencing violence; an active learning workshop for the family and domestic violence sector; and peer education sessions for women with disabilities.

Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre Project (ARS project 14)

Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre

Project contact: Jane Pederson

This project aims to bring together women to identify what a safe region looks like and drive and deliver a whole-of-community harm free society strategy. Over 18 months this will include five full day workshops and smaller focus groups managed by Indigenous leaders, following action based research. 

Establish Peels says no to violence (ARS project 15)

Peel Community Development Group

This project will establish a regional alliance and develop and trial a community education campaign. The project includes:

1. establishment of the alliance;
2.  collection of data from agencies and stories from women;
3. education campaign development;
4. evaluation.

Families United Together (ARS project 16)

Association for Services Torture and Trauma Survivors Inc (ASeTTS)

Project contact: Assadullah Khurrami 

This project will engage CALD and refugee background communities including Middle eastern, Hazara (Afghan) and Karen (Burmese) communities. 30 community members will be trained to improve knowledge of the dynamics of domestic violence, the legal framework that applies to domestic violence and services available for victims and perpetrators. Trained community members will act as points of reference for their communities and will be supported to design and implement community events to raise awareness regarding domestic and family violence. 

Community, Respect & Equality (ARS project 17)

Desert Blue Connect

Project contact: Margie Robinson

The ‘Community, Respect and Equality’ – Midwest Action plan to build safer communities for women project has a focus on primary prevention which will see an evidence based strategic action plan developed through participatory and extensive community consultation.  It aims to look at the root causes and determinants of violence within our community and ways to address these.  The project will look at strategies that will work in our community, which could be a focus on gender inequality, addressing community attitudes and norms or use of champions to educate on family and domestic violence.

The project will roll out through three stages, with the first being local mapping and research of family and domestic violence,  community consultation with various groups, government and non-government organisations, businesses, local government, and workplaces, and the establishment of a primary prevention project reference group.  The second and third stages work to create and endorse the prevention plan and the development of a portfolio of proposed actions including the use of local champions.  A family and domestic violence symposium is planned for late 2017 to launch the plan.

Creating Safe Places (ARS project 18)

Eastern Region Domestic Violence Services Network

Project contacts: Robyn Fitall, CEO Koolkuna and Luke van der Beeke, Co-Founder, Marketing for Change

Koolkuna and Marketing for Change are working in partnership with the Aboriginal community in the North East Metropolitan Region of Perth to design, deliver and implement a community-led social change program. 

Act Local (ARS Project 40)

Save the Children

Project Contact: Kylie Robertson

The project aims to mobilise six communities (Bainsdale, Kununurra, Palmerston, Gayndah/Munduberra, Normanton and Doomadgee) to develop a local Domestic and Family Violence action plan. Plans will include practical actions to increase community awareness, engage local resources to prevent and intervene and improve connections between service providers.

Partnerships include Community Elders and Leaders, community members, health and community service providers, police, schools, local government and business.