Vision
The Victorian Government values the expertise and perspectives of people with a lived experience of family violence and trusts their leadership. Together we will transform a system to meet the needs of the people who use it.
Purpose
The purpose of this strategy is to guide the Victorian Government into the next phase of its work, where it provides opportunities and pathways for increased leadership and influence by people with lived experience of family violence.
In order to articulate the priorities and actions that will help achieve this, Family Safety Victoria (FSV) has identified 3 phases that aim to clarify the journey towards our vision.
These phases acknowledge the complexity of partnering with lived experience as part of the family and sexual violence reforms and reflect the cultural change required to evolve this work. They demonstrate the evolution of this work within FSV across a period of time, the lessons learned and how those lessons have informed the next phase. The phases are not mutually exclusive and do not represent a fixed beginning or a final destination. Rather, the phases build on each other – the work outlined in earlier phases remains important to achieving our vision and is not intended to be discarded.
The first 2 phases are a reflection on practice and lessons. The third phase outlines aspirations for the future of this work.
The first phase includes those innovative steps which are needed to introduce lived experience of family violence into government.
The second phase involves learning from practice and testing new approaches to support government to arrive at the third phase.
The third phase provides opportunities and pathways for increased leadership and influence for people with lived experience.
The lessons and priorities outlined in this strategy can support other public and community sector organisations to design new initiatives to engage with people with lived experience. The next step towards achieving the priorities outlined in this strategy will be the co-design of an implementation plan with people with lived experience.
Family violence intersects with many reform agendas within government and the community services system. FSV encourages that this strategy can be used together with other intersecting and complementary resources, including the Family Violence Experts by Experience Framework[6], the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing Client Voice Framework for community services, Young Voices, the Victorian Family Violence Research Agenda and the Client Partnership Strategy for the Orange Door.
References
[6] Lamb K, Hegarty K, Amanda, Cina, Fiona, and the University of Melbourne WEAVERs lived experience group, Parker R. (2020) The Family Violence Experts by Experience Framework: Domestic Violence Victoria. Melbourne, Australia. https://safeandequal.org.au/resources/family-violence-experts-by-experience-framework
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