Message from the CEO,
Dr Heather Nancarrow

Internationally and within Australia, we are just beginning to understand the full extent of COVID-19’s impacts on domestic, family and sexual violence—and the work we must do to respond to and prevent it.

This is a difficult time for most of us, in different aspects of our lives and work. I want to thank you all for the many ways you continue to rise to this challenge, making a positive difference to the safety of women and children around the country.

Over decades, our extended community of survivor-advocates, practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers have overcome huge obstacles—but this pandemic brings with it unprecedented challenges, including increased risk of harm to women.

In the midst of uncertainty and rapid change, people I’ve been speaking to are finding ways to adapt, using new tools, interpreting new evidence, and translating what we are learning into action that makes a difference.

We can do this work well because we are also finding ways to connect, sharing resources and ideas, offering support and caring for each other, ensuring that our work is effective, safe and sustainable.

It is an honour to be part of this community of people who are dedicated to improving the safety of women and their children every day, across our country and beyond. Here at ANROWS we will continue to support you by providing the evidence-based resources that you need to do your important work.

Finally, I want to say how proud I am of the ANROWS team’s seamless adaptation to work in the world of COVID-19, as well as their skills and their ongoing commitment to achieving our shared goals. I look forward to the time when we can all be together again.

With best wishes to you all for good health and safety,
Heather

STAY TUNED

Upcoming research publications

April will see three new ANROWS research reports published. Over the next few weeks, expect to see the following in your inbox:

Prioritising women’s safety in Australian perpetrator interventions: The purpose and practices of partner contact—Led by Professor Donna Chung at Curtin University, this project provides a deeper understanding of how men’s behaviour change programs support women and children through partner contact.

Best practice principles for interventions with domestic and family violence perpetrators from refugee backgrounds—Led by Professor Colleen Fisher at the University of Western Australia, this project identifies principles for culturally appropriate, trauma-informed and effective interventions with perpetrators from refugee communities.

Developing LGBTQ programs for perpetrators and victims/survivors of domestic and family violence—Led by Brandon Bear, this collaborative research project between ACON and Relationships Australia New South Wales was designed as a pilot study to tailor and deliver existing perpetrator and victim/survivor group programs to LGBTQ people who use, or are affected by the use of, violence within their intimate relationships.

WORKUP QUEENSLAND

Announcing first Practice Studio hosts

ANROWS is delighted to announce that Cairns Sexual Assault Service and Women’s Health Queensland are the first services to begin hosting Practice Studios as part of the WorkUP Queensland project.

WorkUP Queensland is a five-year joint initiative of ANROWS and The Healing Foundation. The project is working to support and build a strong and skilled sexual violence, women’s health and domestic and family violence workforce in Queensland.

WorkUP’s Practice Studios bring current evidence, research and knowledge to life through implementation in real-world settings. Each practice studio will take one example of new research evidence and try to implement it in their setting and, in doing so, learn what it takes to bridge the research to practice gap.

Lessons learned and resources developed will be shared across the sector, so that we can all learn together and the benefits will be amplified.

Cairns Sexual Assault Service will be testing the implementation of evidence from ANROWS research into Women’s Input into a Trauma-informed systems model of care in Health settings (known as the WITH Study). Their Practice Studio will use the Trauma and Violence Informed Framework, which was developed through this ANROWS-funded research project, and embed the model in their service and other local services.

Women’s Health Queensland’s innovative plan will explore the ‘partnering with women’ element of the Invisible Practices adaption of the Safe and Together framework, applying it as a model for engagement and interaction. Working with women in local communities on a range of health and wellbeing interventions, they will embed support for women across the state.

The WorkUP Reference Group has also begun consultations to determine topics for a second round of practice studios.

Those working in the sexual assault, domestic and family violence or women’s health and wellbeing sector in Queensland can stay connected to WorkUP via the project’s Facebook page, or subscribe to the newsletter through the WorkUP Queensland website.

CATCH UP

Webinar: Navigating a fragmented system

What a turnout! Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for the webinar titled Sadie’s story: Helping women affected by domestic and family violence navigate a fragmented system. More than 1,960 people from over 900 organisations joined us for this live discussion, co-hosted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

The panel included Dr Rae Kaspiew, who discussed her ANROWS research investigating the impacts of domestic and family violence on parenting and parent-child relationships, as well as Sadie’s Story, a case study developed from the research.

Rae was joined by Emma Rogers (Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women) and Jackie Wruck (Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships) from Queensland, who participated in the PATRICIA and Invisible Practices research projects, both of which were led by Professor Cathy Humphreys. They discussed collaborative practice and the practical implications of the research.

The webinar was recorded and will be available on our website soon.

Disability Support Toolkit

The 1800RESPECT Disability Support Toolkit is designed for frontline workers supporting people with disability who have been impacted by sexual assault and domestic violence.

It contains Easy English booklets and videos for people with disability, their carers, disability workers, medical practitioners and social workers.

Better Man Project

No to Violence and the University of Melbourne have launched BETTER MAN, a new evidence-based website about healthy intimate relationships for men.

BETTER MAN is an innovative digital intervention designed to strengthen healthy relationships, enhance communication skills, and promote positive values with men who choose to use violence in their intimate relationships.

New Books & Reports

Ashford, C., & Maine, A. (Eds.). (2020). Research Handbook on Gender, Sexuality and the Law. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Donnelly, S. (2020). Design guide for refuge accommodation for women and children: UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion.

Hamel, J., Russell, B., & Wagers, S. (Eds.). (2020). Partner Abuse: New Directions in Research, Intervention, and Policy. New York, United States: Springer Publishing.

Haneef, C., & Kalyanpur, A. (2020). Global Rapid Gender Analysis for COVID-19.

Jaffe, P., Scott, K., & Straatman, A.-L. (Eds.). (2020). Preventing Domestic Homicides: Lessons learned from tragedies. Massachusetts: Academic Press.

McKay, T., Comfort, M., Landwehr, J., Kennedy, E., & Williams, O. (2020). Partner Violence Help-Seeking in Couples Affected by Incarceration: Overcoming Barriers (Policy Brief, April 2020).

Peterman, A., Potts, A., O’Donnell, M., Thompson, K., Shah, N., Oertelt-Prigione, S., & van Gelder, N. (2020). Pandemics and Violence Against Women and Children (CGD Working Paper 528). Washington: Center for Global Development.

Petrangelo, M., Heath, J., Westmarland, N., & Bellini, R. (2020). Utilization of Videoconference Software for Men’s BIPs: Summary of Experience and Research to date and COVID-19 Considerations (Webinar presentation slides).

Potts, D. L. (2020). Professing to Power. In L. A. Gray-Rosendale (Ed.), Me Too, Feminist Theory, and Surviving Sexual Violence in the Academy.

Sanders, R. (2020). ESSS Outline: Adolescent to parent violence and abuse.

U. N. Women. (2020). COVID-19 and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls.