This will create a more accessible and expert service system, and a safer community for all Victorians.
Supporting diverse communities
Our goal is a service system where ‘there is no wrong door.'
The Victorian Government is working on:
- removing the barriers that prevent people from reporting family violence and accessing help
- providing the right mix of targeted and universal services so that people from diverse communities can get the support they need
We're making our family violence services more accessible, flexible and responsive to diverse needs.
Find the Everybody matters: Inclusion and Equity Statement
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The Royal Commission into Family Violence recognised that for some groups in the community, family violence is less visible and less well understood by service providers and the broader community.
These groups are
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Older people
- Culturally and linguistically diverse communities
- Faith communities
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse and intersex communities
- People with disabilities
- Male victims
- Rural, regional and remote communities
- Women in prison
- People working in the sex industry
Find out more on our Understanding intersectionality page.
Engaging with experts
The Victorian Government is placing the voices of people with lived experience of family violence at the centre of its reforms.
We are working collaboratively with the community and the family violence sector in delivering our reforms.
To achieve this we've sought input from people with lived experience of family violence and community and sector experts from diverse backgrounds through a number of governance bodies.
These include:
- Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum
- Diverse Communities and Intersectionality Working Group
- LGBTIQ Family Violence Working Group
- Elder Abuse Prevention Advisory Group
Membership of these groups also include members of the Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council.
Unprecedented government investment
$1.9 billion was allocated in the 2017-18 budget for family violence reform.
Funding for initiatives to improve outcomes for diverse communities included:
- $84 million invested in initiatives that prevent and respond to family violence in Aboriginal communities
- $2 million to deliver intersectionality capacity building training to family violence organisations to build knowledge
- $1.48 million to create a Gender and Disability Workforce Development Program, to build the capacity of the disability workforce to prevent and identify violence against women and family violence
- $13.8 million to prevent and respond to family violence in multicultural and faith communities
- $5.28 million to prevent and respond to family violence in LGBTI communities
- $1.35 million funding for LGBTI applicant and respondent workers at the Magistrates’ Court to assist LGBTI victim survivors
In the 2016-17 budget, funding included:
- $25.7 million to improve outcomes for Aboriginal communities
- $2.25 million allocated to inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence
- $1 million to provide specialist family violence services to culturally diverse women and children
- $200,000 to support Seniors Rights Victoria to address and prevent elder abuse
- $2.5 million to improve outcomes for people from LGBTI communities
- $200,000 per annum in 2016/17 and 2017/18 to support Women with Disabilities Victoria
- Funding to improve outcomes for people in the sex industry who experience family violence
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