Action Research Support – VIC project summaries

VIC

United in Diversity: Facilitating Safer Pathways (ARS Project 23)

InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence

Project contact: Nadine Hantke

The project raises awareness of family violence and early intervention within culturally diverse communities as well as facilitates pathways between mainstream services and these communities.

The project consists of three parts:

• working with three local ethno-specific services and engaging five bi-lingual facilitators to conduct nine community information sessions about family violence to the Afghan, Indian and South Sudanese communities;
• working with local services, including government agencies, health services, police, local government etc. to facilitate cross-cultural understanding about family violence by conducting a training package with a total of four half day workshops aiming to reach 100 frontline workers;
• facilitating engagement between these services with the culturally diverse communities that participated in the community information sessions by bringing them together in a joint forum.

Together We Can: Stop Family Violence in Cardinia (ARS Project 24)

Southern Family Life Service Association Inc.

Project contact: Alison McCoy, General Manager Research and Impact

A primary prevention Collective Impact Initiative which aims to stop, prevent and end family violence in Cardinia Shire Victoria. Collective Impact is a framework to tackle deeply entrenched and complex social problems. It is an innovative and structured approach to making collaboration work across government, business, philanthropy, non-profit organisations and citizens to achieve significant and lasting social change. The Collective Impact approach is premised on the belief that no single policy, government department, organisation or program can tackle or solve the increasingly complex social problems we face as a society. The approach calls for multiple organisations or entities from different sectors to abandon their own agenda in favour of a common agenda, shared measurement and alignment of effort. Together We Can is funded by the Department of Social Services, Cardinia Shire and Family Life in partnership with The University of Melbourne and Victoria Police.

Stand Strong. Safe Communities for Women (ARS Project 25)

Women’s Health Loddon Mallee

Project contact: Marnie Jewell

The project will build upon work undertaken by Women’s Health Loddon Mallee in developing a regional action plan to prevent violence against women. Funding will be used to implement parts of the plan, align activities, establish shared measurement practices and build public will. Over time, Women’s Health Loddon Mallee anticipates that these activities will lead to changes among partners, funders, policy makers, and community members which, in turn, lead to more effective systems and improved sustainable community outcomes.

Conversations for Change (ARS Project 26)

Primary Care Connect

Project contacts: Broni Paine  and Nicole Montgomery

This project aims to engage 1000 local community members in small facilitated conversations to gain their knowledge, ideas and understanding of family and community violence. The data collected will inform a community led action plan to combat the family/community violence within the local area.

Working together with Men (ARS Project 27)

Carers Victoria

Project contact: Dimity Gannon, Project Manager

“Working together with Men” mobilises men in Brimbank, Victoria, to take primary prevention actions to end violence against women. It recruits men and takes them through a process of education and capacity building. Adult men from diverse ethnic backgrounds participated in awareness raising sessions, trainings, ideas generation events, and upskilling workshops. Some of the men will be selected to implement place-based primary actions identified by the local community to address drivers of violence.

The Dads Group Inc. Connect Program (DGI Connect) (ARS Project 28)

Dad’s Group Inc.

Project contact: [email protected]

This program provides first-time fathers in Victoria, from metropolitan, regional and fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) communities with a social platform that enables new dads to connect with each other and equip them with the knowledge of relevant services and supports.

The Further Life Opportunities for Women (ARS Project 29)

South East Community Links

Project contact: Esther Ndirangu

The Further Life Opportunities for Women (FLOW) project will address the identified need for increased education/awareness on gender based violence amongst families of migrant/refugee backgrounds, as well as education on access to available supports/services. The project will work with young people and their families of migrant/refugee backgrounds in the growth corridor of Southern Metropolitan Melbourne, with a focus on those from Afghanistan, Burma and Sri Lanka.

This project seeks to work closely with the target groups at the grass roots level, through community mobilisation and community development approaches, to educate, empower and equip migrant/refugee youth and their families to address cultural perceptions of family violence, develop strategies to prevent family violence and seek support from relevant local service providers. The project will work with culturally embedded understandings of gender based inequities to prevent the intergenerational transmission of values that sanction violence against women.

Women’s Safety Right Now (ARS Project 30)

Gateway Health

Project contact: Tricia Hazeleger

Improve engagement between government and non-government organisations and the broader community (focusing on the Bhutanese and Congolese communities of Albury-Wodonga) to create sustainable practices to help reduce violence against women and to effectively respond to and support women and their children who are experiencing violence by:

1. Building capacity and resilience within the community to keep women and children safe through sustainable integrated service delivery and joined up agency programs and responses.
2. Increasing awareness of family violence in refugee communities and the impact of this on families and society.

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.