Grants
Grant: The Kimberley Integrated Family and Domestic Violence Project Grant
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence project lead, funded by Lotterywest
Details: Commencing in 2020 The Kimberley Integrated Family and Domestic Violence Project is a community based, Aboriginal co-designed multi-agency collaborative initiative designed to address family and domestic violence (FDV) and intersecting problems such as substance abuse, in the Kimberley.
Impact: Contributing towards an appropriate and effective response to perpetrators of family and domestic violence in the Kimberley region of WA, which promotes the accountability of perpetrators and the safety and well-being of adult and child victim-survivors of family and domestic violence.
Grant: Responses to Perpetrator Driven Risk during the Covid – 19 Pandemic
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence funded by the Department of Communities
Project Details: The development of a Principal Practitioner role to develop and coordinate a cross system response to high risk/high need perpetrators in the context of the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impact: The grant helped to ensure the Family and Domestic Violence sector continues to deliver critical supports and services during the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring appropriate measures are developed to respond to the changing needs of victim-survivors and perpetrators during the COVID-19 health response.
Events & Training
Event: 16 Days of Activism
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence funded by the Department of Communities
Details: Stopping Family Violence again played an active role in 16 Days of Activism this year by supporting the sector and raising awareness, motivating positive actions across Western Australia, and advocating on behalf of organisations that oppose violence against women.
Impact: The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. It was started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. It is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.
Training: Caring Dads Training Provider
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence and Caring Dads
Details: Caring Dads is a group intervention program for men who have abused, neglected, or exposed their children to domestic violence. Stopping Family Violence runs facilitator training events to train facilitators in this model.
Impact: Caring Dads training is devoted to ensuring the safety and well-being of our communities most vulnerable. Stopping Family Violence trains facilitators in this model that will work with fathers who have been abusive neglectful or violent in their families.
Training: Safe and Together Training Provider
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence in partnership with Safe & Together
Details: The Safe & Together Institute is a systems change and training organization that helps diverse sectors transform their approach to domestic violence and children. Using a behavioural, whole-of-family approach, the Institute’s Perpetrator Pattern-based Framework encourages interventions with perpetrators as parents and partnerships with adult survivors.
Impact: The Safe & Together Model is designed to create systems and practice change that is child-centered, keeping children safe and together with the protective parent.
Training: Stopping Family Violence Training Events
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence supports the family and domestic violence sector
Details: Stopping Family Violence continued to deliver tailored training events to small and large organisations that are tailored to their sector and employees’ needs.
Impact: To create family and domestic violence-informed practice in all areas that create safety for adult and child victim-survivors.
Training: Legal Aid Training by Stopping Family Violence
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence and Legal Aid
Details: The training for Legal Aid was on the Client Safety Framework included information for staff to better recognise and respond to clients where it is identified that there are safety risks that arise from a client’s experience or use of family violence or situations where a client is feeling suicidal.
Impact: Suicide and family violence have been included in this training as they are client safety issues that lawyers commonly confront in their practice. Increasing education and awareness enables Legal Aid staff to safely respond to their clients where there is family violence or situations where a client is feeling suicidal.
Supervision: Stopping Family Violence Supervision Services
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence supports the family and domestic violence sector
Details: Stopping Family Violence continued to offer supervision services in 2022 for those working in the family and domestic violence sector.
Impact: Supporting employees that come from working in challenging systems with best practice evidence-based advice for those who work in the family and domestic violence sector.
Research
Research: Monitoring and Quality Assurance Framework
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence supports the family and domestic violence sector
Project Details: The vast array of issues covered in this review included registration processes, the place of complaint mechanisms, the features of comprehensive accreditation systems, program logic models, and safety and accountability planning.
Impact: The resulting framework provides detailed recommendations for an accreditation framework and system for WA MBCP providers and includes a timeline for this work.
Partnerships & Networks
Network: Peer Practitioner Forum
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence funded by Department of Communities
Details: During the COVID-19 Crisis, SFV continued to facilitate the Peer Practitioner Forum (PPF) bi-monthly meetings and included extra support sessions during the period when MBCPs groups shut down.
Impact: Despite restrictions, the group continued to evolve, with participants finding additional value from a peer supervision format and connecting across both regional and metro WA to share knowledge, skills and challenges around perpetrator accountability and partnership with victim-survivors.
Support: Family and Domestic Violence One Stop Hubs
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence in consultation with Department of Communities
Details: This year SFV closely supported the Department during the development phase of the One Stop Hub process with a significant amount of consultation. This included attendance at an information session and partnership with the Department in providing expert advice and support during a combined trip to Victoria’s key Government and not-for-profit services involved in the Orange Door Project.
Impact: In January 2017 the State Government released its Stopping Family and Domestic Violence Policy which included the establishment of two family and domestic violence One Stop Hubs to simplify access to specialist family and domestic violence support services. The Hubs will provide a wraparound approach, with a range of support services on site to support victims of family and domestic violence in multiple aspects of life.
Network: Chair of the Men’s Behaviour Change Network WA
Partnership: Men’s Behaviour Change Network WA lead by Stopping Family Violence commenced in 2017.
Committee Details: Since its inception in early 2017, the Men’s Behaviour Change Program (MBCP) Network has been working to develop a collective, powerful voice for perpetrator programs in WA and support the ongoing evolution toward a standard of excellence across the sector. The Network has become an important forum for collaborative practice, discussion, and establishing cohesive research and development agendas across the perpetrator response sphere.
Impact: The Men’s Behaviour Change Network WA is a collaborative group established to strengthen the working relationships across the perpetrator intervention system in Western Australia. The Network provides a forum to support current practice whilst striving to further develop the sector through improved collaboration and evidence based innovation. The purpose of the Men’s Behaviour Change Network is to bring the sector together to provide advocacy and support as we work to reduce family and domestic violence in Australia.
Partnership: Co-Peaks The Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing – CWSW
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence and The Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing – CWSW
Details: This partnership commenced in 2017, The Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing is an independent, representative peak body for women’s specialist domestic and family violence, community-based women’s health and sexual assault services in Western Australia is underpinned by our recognition of the importance of gender equality to reduce violence against women and their children and promote their health and wellbeing.
Impact: The Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing is the co-peak with Stopping Family Violence in family and domestic violence sector in Western Australia. Partners with the women’s sector gives a cohesive approach to family and domestic violence for women and children and those perpetrating family and domestic violence.
Partnership: Preventing Violence Together
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence and Preventing Violence Together (PVT)
Details: Stopping Family Violence helped establish PVT in 2020. Primary prevention focuses on shifting the culture that permits violence to occur in the first place by identifying and challenging the social norms, practices and structures that drive violence against women. Preventing Violence Together works to build the capacity of local communities, state agencies and organisations, government and the private sector to develop, implement and evaluate effective primary prevention activities.
Impact: Stopping Family Violence works together with Preventing Violence Together to foster the primary prevention sector that is developing in our state by supporting shared approaches, consistent practice and confident professionals undertaking primary prevention of violence against women throughout WA.
Network: Chair of WA Family Law Pathways Network
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence Chair the WA Family Law Pathways Network Steering Committee
Details: The objective of the Western Australia Family Law Pathways Network is to foster strong links with locally based providers who operate as part of, or alongside, the family law system, to enhance collaboration and improve overall assistance to separated and separating families.
Impact: The WA Family Law Pathways Network hosts an annual conference for those working in the family law system to improve their practice to help families who have separated or are separating.
Network: Respectful Relationships Program
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence in partnership with Starick and Department of Education
Details: The Respectful Relationships Program is a pilot project delivered in primary and secondary public schools across WA. The program supports school staff to implement a whole of school approach to violence prevention with a focus on the impacts of gender inequality and preventing FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. SFV has partnered with Starick Services and the Department of Education in the delivery of the program. The Respectful Relationships Teaching Support Program (RRTSP) has been developed by Starick in partnership with the Department of Communities and the Department of Education to support teachers and school staff to develop knowledge, skills, confidence and community partnerships.
Impact: As part of the program, participants complete foundation family and domestic violence eLearning modules and attend two workshops to explore best practice principles and tools, develop a plan for a whole of community approach and explore future directions and support. SFV brings a key focus on impacts of gender inequality and family and domestic violence expertise to the Partnership and has now supported three rounds of the program with over 25 schools attending the program.
Network: Member Humanitarian Entrants Interagency Network (HEIN)
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence became a network member of the HEIN Network led by Department of Communities.
Details: Stopping Family Violence commenced on the network in 2017. Metropolitan multicultural networks are gatherings of government, non-government agencies and community groups that share information, knowledge and resources so that they can better support their culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities.
Impact: HEIN facilitates relationships, collaboration and support, and the sharing of information, practice and ideas among agencies that provide services to people from refugee backgrounds.
Network: Healthy Relationships Strategy Group South East Metropolitan
Partnership: Stopping Family Violence committee member
Stopping Family Violence attends monthly meetings as part of the Healthy Relationships Strategy Group for the South East Metropolitan Corridor. This forum brings together delegates from WAPOL, women’s services, perpetrator response, City of Belmont, City of South Perth, Town of Victoria Park, financial services and housing and AOD to identify early intervention strategies for Domestic Violence in the local community.
Impact: As the only representative for perpetrator response on the committee, SFV offers an important voice to this cross-sector collaborative discussion and implementation. SFV aims to ensure that notions of perpetrator accountability and empowering survivors of family and domestic violence remain a top priority of the committee’s discussions.
Network: Multi-cultural Advisory Forum
Partnership: Led by Department of Human Services
Details: Stopping Family Violence was invited by Department of Human Services to join the Multi-cultural Advisory Group in 2017.The forums provide consultation with multicultural communities at local, state and territory levels. These forums ensure communities know about the department’s programs, services and new initiatives which have an impact on CALD customer. The group provides advice and feedback about the quality and effectiveness of the department’s service delivery to multicultural customers.
Impact: As one of the only representatives for perpetrator intervention work in the forum, SFV offers expertise and advise in the area of engaging with perpetrators in this space to increase the safety of women and children. SFV also utilises the information in these forums to further inform men’s specialist services.
Network: ASeTTs Research Project Reference Group
Partnership: ASseTTS and University of Western Australia
Details: Stopping Family Violence is part of the Association for Services to Torture and Trauma Survivors (ASeTTs) and the University of Western Australia’s Research Reference Group “The Association for Services to Torture and Trauma Survivors (ASeTTs) and the University of Western Australia’s Research Reference Group for a project developing best practice guidelines for work with perpetrators from refugee backgrounds.
Impact: The ANROWs funded project ‘Best practice principle for interventions with DV perpetrators from refugee backgrounds’ aims to provide evidence to inform interventions for perpetrators of refugee backgrounds that are responsive to refugees’ experiences of torture and trauma. Alongside representative from MBCPs, and CALD and refugee services, SFV offer expertise and constructive advice throughout the project.
Network: National Fatherhood Project – Expert Reference Group
Partnership: National Fatherhood Project
Details: Stopping Family Violence participate in the expert reference group for the National Fatherhood Project being led by White Ribbon Australia. For many men, fatherhood is a time of transformation that inspires a deeper understanding about the importance of their role to act as positive agents of change and this project aims to support and encourage this potential. The expert reference group will guide the development and implementation of the Activity Work Plan through ongoing guidance of the project’s activities.
Impact: The project aims to engage with men – as fathers, soon-to-be fathers, or those in father figure roles – to model and foster positive and respectful attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls.
