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Research

Our research

Violence against women and children affects everybody. It impacts on the health, wellbeing and safety of a significant proportion of Australians throughout all states and territories and places an enormous burden on the nation’s economy across family and community services, health and hospitals, income-support and criminal justice systems.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

News and events

ANROWS hosts events as part of its knowledge transfer and exchange work, including public lectures, workshops and research launches. Details of upcoming ANROWS activities and news are available from the list on the right.

ANROWS

About ANROWS

ANROWS was established by the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments of Australia to produce, disseminate and assist in applying evidence for policy and practice addressing violence against women and children.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

Resources

To support the take-up of evidence, ANROWS offers a range of resources developed from research to support practitioners and policy-makers in delivering evidence-based interventions.


PRACTICE GUIDE

Invisible practices: Working with fathers who use violence

This resource provides a practical guide for working effectively with families, using the Safe & Together model, based upon the findings from the “Invisible practices” research project.  

The “Invisible practices” research is grounded in the belief that women and children experiencing domestic and family violence will be better supported by a model of working that involves the whole family. It draws from the Safe & Together Model which entails three core principles:

  1. Keeping the children together with the non-offending parent
  2. Partnering with the non-offending parent as the default position
  3. Intervening with the perpetrator to reduce risk and harm to child.

Practitioners within the child protection systems and family services are well positioned to engage with fathers who use violence. This resource guides and asks reflective questions of those practitioners who work with fathers who use violence by asking, “What does good practice with fathers who use violence look like?”

The resource is structured around five themes that emerged as being important from practitioners who participated in the research:

  • Working with fathers who use violence and control
  • Partnering with women
  • Focusing on children and young people
  • Working collaboratively
  • Worker safety.

Critically, the resource focuses on the patterns of abuse that a father uses, in order to better assess risk and inform safety planning. This ensures that the safety of women and children remains central, and their voices are always privileged in practice.

 

 

Suggested citation

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2018). Invisible practices: Working with fathers who use violence [Practice guide]. ANROWS.

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