NATIONAL FAMILY & DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SUMMIT

BY MAYA AVDIBEGOVIC

INNNOVATION: A KEY FOR A SUCCESSFUL

INTEGRATED RESPONSE THAT MEET THE NEEDS

OF CALD COMMUNITIES

32 years of experience

Expertise in providing culturally tailored services

KEY STRATEGIC AREAS

Crisis Intervention

Prevention & Early Intervention

Expanding Organisational

Capability

Building Sector Capacity

Post-crisis Support

Research and Advocacy

- Definitions:

- Introducing something new

- A creation resulting from study and experimentation

- The act of starting something for the first time

- Introducing something new

- Innovation means venturing away from familiar ground into uncharted territory

- Innovation is the embodiment, combination and / or synthesis of knowledge in

novel, relevant, valued new products, process or services

- What have we done? What is new in our model?

- A different way of looking into innovation:

- Innovation is all the rage, but we would be better off going back to a simpler

way of doing things

- We don’t need to be clever just less stupid

WHAT IS INNOVATION?

- Main principle – common sense

- Steps:

1. Understanding – who are our clients

• In prevention work: CALD communities – women, men and children that need to be

educated, community leaders and groups that need to be engaged in prevention work

to become agents of change

• In crisis and post-crisis work:

• CALD women and children who experience family violence

• CALD men who are perpetrators of violence against women and children

2. What is the problem?

• in prevention work – lack of engagement, resistance, deeply embedded challenging

attitudes, being marginalised in current mainstream prevention activities

• in crisis support work – not accessing services, falling through gaps in system

3. Why do we have the problem?

1. Both in prevention and crisis support work models designed for the mainstream

community do not work for CALD communities

OUR APPROACH

- Prevention – CALD Communities Leading

the Way to Respectful Relationships

- Crisis and post-crisis support – a holistic

multidisciplinary model

OUR MODELS

PROJECT RATIONALE

CALD communities could be :

• more accepting of gender inequality and

normalising FV than general community –

(VicHealth NCAS report, 2009)

• disadvantaged access to prevention

information (limited verbal, written English

language skills)

Specific challenges:

• Language & communication barriers

• Differing cultural practice

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Project Goal

To increase the awareness around gender equality, respectful relationships

and family violence in four ethno-specific communities in metropolitan

Melbourne

Project Objectives

1. To establish four ethno-specific Task Force Committees (TFC) that include a bi-

lingual facilitator and one representative from a local community partner

organization

2. To provide training on prevention of family violence and engage and facilitate

the Task Force Committees in critical thinking

3. To develop four culturally appropriate Task Force Committee Action Plans

4. To conduct eight primary prevention activities in conjunction with each of the

four Task Force Committees (32 activities in total)

5. To develop partnerships with local stakeholders for joint activities and

ongoing sustainability of the Task Force Committees

Project Set up

Partnered with 4 local ethno specific community organizations

Recruited 4 bilingual facilitators

Established 4 ethno specific Task Force Committees (TFCs) of

between 4-8 members

PROJECT DESIGN

Sankat Mochan Samiti

Inc.

Reg. No. A0052145E

Training and Activities

Delivered culturally appropriate training to facilitators, TFCs and

partner organization representatives

TFCs conducted community survey

Each group developed an action plan for 8 awareness-raising

activities.

Delivered 8 activities to their communities.

PROJECT DESIGN

Sustainability

Partnerships established with local ethno-specific organizations at

outset

linkages were developed with each community’s local stakeholders,

including councils.

PROJECT DESIGN

OUTCOMES

Good progress made in

initiating discussion within

the 4 communities

Facilitators and TFC

members have become

‘change agents’

Many activities had

outcomes beyond the

moment of delivery

Croatian knitting group – informal

discussions

Sudanese TFC member speaking at

art exhibition opening

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

- Main principle – common sense

- Steps:

1. Understanding – who are our clients

• CALD women and children who experience family violence

• CALD men who are perpetrators of violence against women and children

2. What is the problem?

• not accessing services, falling through gaps in system

3. Why do we have the problem?

1. models designed for the mainstream community do not work for CALD communities

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

Culturally tailored model that

breaks down the barriers for

our clients

Issues/barriers : LANGUAGE, CULTURE,

MIGRATION, SETTLEMENT

Solution: WORKFORCE

- inTouch team:

- 60% first generation migrants + 17% second

generation migrants

- 15 different cultural backgrounds, 28 different

languages and dialects

- FV Case workers = 90% first generation migrant

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

Issues/barriers : VISA STATUS

Solution: REGISTERED MIGRATION

AGENT

- Women without permanent residency one of the most

vulnerable group

- Spousal visa, student visa, business visa, tourist visa

- Access to Family Violence Provision in Migration Act

- In 2014/2015 supported 377 clients on spousal visa to

access FV Provision

-

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

Issues/barriers : LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF

LEGAL & JUSTICE SYSTEM

Solution: IN-HOUSE LEGAL CENTRE

- Legal Barriers to CALD Women Experiencing Family Violence (2010)

- iTLC established in 2012, first of its kind in Australia

- Unique model where case workers and lawyers work together

- Supporting most vulnerable clients – internal referrals

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

Issues/barriers : LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF

LEGAL & JUSTICE SYSTEM

Solution: COURT SUPPORT PROGRAM

- In 2014/2015 more than 300 clients supported at 3 courts

- Currently piloting a duty lawyer service at two courts where lawyers and case workers provide support together

-

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

Issues/barriers : ACCESS TO SERVICES

Solution: OUTPOSTS

- inTouch currently runs its services from 8 different location

- Central office in Richmond

- 3 court outposts

- 2 outposts at Maurice Blackburn’s offices

- Vietnamese Women’s Association

- Dandenong hospital (as a part of Health Justice Partnership project)

-

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

Issues/barriers : LACK OF SERVICES FOR CALD CHILDREN

Solution: THE EMPTY JAR

- Children therapeutic book

- and resource pack

- Training for professionals

-

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

Issues/barriers : LACK OF SERVICES FOR CALD MEN

Solution: CALD MEN’S BEHAVIOUR

CHANGE PROGRAMS

- Vietnamese MBCP established in 2009

- Arabic MBCP established in 2015

- Run by MBCP standards with addition of 3 weeks of tailored program

- Run by bilingual facilitators

-

CRISIS & POST-CRISIS INTERVENTION

MULTIDISCIPLINARY SERVICE MODEL

FV

Support

ProgramCCS &

ICM

Program

inTouch

Legal

Centre

Court

Support

Program

Immigration

Assistance

Post-

crisis

recovery

Children

Groups

CALD

Men’s

BCP

Children

Book

QUESTIONS?