Released 11/05/2018
The ACT Government’s Family Safety Hub being launched today represents a major milestone for the Canberra community’s response to domestic and family, and intimate partner violence. The Hub will facilitate the development of new and innovative solutions aimed at addressing the needs of families who are impacted by this issue.
The Family Safety Hub will act as a central avenue to bring the right people together to develop new solutions and to then design, trial and test these ideas before allowing for them to be scaled-up and merged into the existing service system.
To kick off the establishment of the Hub, the inaugural Challenge will also take place with the support and involvement of community services, experts, service providers and government representatives seeking better solutions to better work to enable better early intervention for pregnant women and new parents.
The Hub was developed through a 12 month co-design process which involved over 50 service providers, as well as 20 people with lived experience of domestic and family violence. Through the co-design process we heard that some people are incredibly isolated and many seek help through trusted relationships. This means that the whole service system, including the education, health and legal sectors, need to be able to respond to domestic and family violence.
What we heard throughout the co-design process, was that people won’t use our services if we don’t offer different, more flexible supports to the ones that are currently available. We were also told that very clearly that a ‘new shiny front door’ was not the ultimate solution and won’t help them access the services that they need.
Refer to the attached Family Safety Hub factsheet.
What is a challenge and how does it work?
Each year the Hub will work through a series of Challenges. The best ideas from these Challenges will be further developed and tested with the community. The ideas that show the most potential will be scaled-up and embedded across the service system. In this way, the Hub will help create change by bringing together the right people to problem-solve how we might do things differently.
The first challenge will consider how to build better early intervention support for pregnant women and new parents, which of course was an area identified as a priority and an opportunity through the co-design work last year.
Research suggests that women can be at greater risk of experiencing violence from their partners during pregnancy and post-partum, especially when they are separated. Experts from across the community and health sectors, including child and maternal health services, Child and Family Centres, domestic violence services and men’s behaviour change programs, have come together yesterday and today to tackle this issue in innovative ways.
The capability of services will be enhanced to understand, identify and respond to domestic and family violence and provide improved responses to clients, as well as build new pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, children, women with disabilities and the LGBTIQ+ community.
Other challenges will be tackled through the Hub this year including a focus on enhancing women’s access to financial support and private housing.
Refer to the attached Challenge factsheet.
I look forward to working with all sectors, and across all sides of politics as we learn how best to address domestic and family violence in the ACT community and make Canberra a safer and healthier place for all.
The Family Safety Hub is funded at $5.96 million over four years through the Safer Families Levy which sees each household contribute $30 per year through their rates.
If you or anyone you know is living with family or domestic violence, please contact Domestic Violence Crisis Service on 6280 0900.
Note: The Family Safety Hub was a key commitment in the ACT Government’s Response to Domestic and Family Violence and the ACT Coordinator General has spent the last 12 months co-designing the final hub design with the input from government, community services and front-line workers, experts and victims of domestic and family violence.
The final insights from the Co-design process can be found on the www.communityservices.act.gov.au.
The final Family Safety Hub design report can be found on the www.communityservices.act.gov.au.
More information on Safer Families can be found on the www.communityservices.act.gov.au.
- Statement ends -
Yvette Berry, MLA | Media Releases
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