Who is accessing The Orange Door network for assistance?
The Orange Door network aims to be responsive and accessible for all, and inclusive of individuals of all ages, genders, abilities, sexes, sexual orientations, cultures and religions.
The Orange Door network recognises that people can face additional barriers to getting the help they need, due to systemic or structural discrimination. The establishment and operations for The Orange Door network is informed by Everybody Matters: Inclusion and Equity Statement (Everybody Matters), first published in April 2019.
Everybody Matters represents a 10-year commitment to building an inclusive, safe, responsive and accountable family violence system for all Victorians. The statement calls out the need to address barriers that people from a diverse range of communities face, when reporting family violence and when seeking or obtaining help.[1]
The Orange Door Inclusion Action Plan was subsequently released in 2021 and seeks to enhance inclusion, access, and equity across The Orange Door network. The Plan was developed with partner agencies and sets out how The Orange Door network will ensure services are accessible for all clients, and offer supports tailored to individual needs and experiences. The Plan outlines actions aimed at achieving inclusion, including through the physical environment, leadership, communication, training and connection with local communities.
With state-wide establishment of The Orange Door network, ongoing implementation of the Plan will continue to support The Orange Door network in responding to Victorian communities and meeting their diverse cultural and social needs.
How many people has The Orange Door network sought to support?
Noting that a single referral may involve numerous individuals (such as members of a family), in 2022-23 almost 191,000 people including over 82,000 children and young people (including unborn children) were referred to The Orange Door network and provided with a response.[2]
Children and young people represented 43.1% of all people provided with a response in 2022-23. Compared to 2021-22, this represented a 48.7% increase in the total number of people and a 53.5% increase in the number of children and young people provided with a response. This is consistent with the growth in referrals to The Orange Door and can be attributed to the continued expansion of the network over the period.
Individuals and families can seek assistance from The Orange Door network as many times as they need. In 2022-23, 23.7% of people who received a response from The Orange Door were referred or sought assistance two or more times during the financial year. Children, young people and adults displayed a similar pattern in the number of times they were referred or sought support from The Orange Door network (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Number of times people were referred or sought support from The Orange Door Network in 2022-23
Working with people from diverse communities
The Orange Door network seeks to welcome people of any age, gender, ability, sex, sexuality, ethnicity, culture or religion. The Orange Door network aims to provide people from diverse communities a safe service response where their cultural and religious and other preferences and specific needs are respected.
In 2022-23, almost three in five adults (58.3%) who were provided a response from The Orange Door identified as female, compared to 40.7% who identified as male and 0.1% who self-described their gender identity. For children and young people, 48.4% identified as male, 46.4% identified as female and 0.3% self-described their gender identity.
The Orange Door CRM has been enhanced to collect better and more nuanced information about a range of identifiers. Future enhancements are planned to align the CRM with revised LGBTIQA+ data collection standards. Although data quality around client identity is constantly improving, identifiers for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse, LGBTIQA+ and disability status are not yet reliable enough to report.
Orange Door multicultural advisory groups have been established in areas which have a high number of multicultural residents, including Southern Melbourne, Bayside Peninsula, Hume Merri-bek, Barwon and North East Melbourne. These meet bi-monthly to ensure services meet the needs of multicultural communities.
The Service System Navigators who work for The Orange Door participate in existing multicultural networks. Where needed, arrangements are in place with partner agencies in that area to support client referrals to The Orange Door.
Other initiatives have focused on:
- the strengthening of service systems to better respond to children, young people and adults with disabilities at risk of family violence
- the strengthening of linkages and referral pathways with disability and other community-based services in local areas
- the provision of an LGBTIQA+ module as required training for all staff commencing at The Orange Door
- and The Orange Door statewide Inclusion Action Plan refresh.
Supporting Aboriginal self-determination
Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) are critical partners in The Orange Door network. They receive funding to employ an Aboriginal Practice Leader and/or Aboriginal hub practitioners to ensure that Aboriginal people receive a culturally safe response. In addition, ACCOs support the establishment of the Aboriginal Advisory Group which involves community members, members of the local Dhelk Dja Action Group and other ACCOs to ensure a culturally safe response and strong connections with the local community.
An Aboriginal Inclusion Action Plan for The Orange Door network was developed in consultation with the Dhelk Dja Koori Caucus, Priority Sub-Working Groups and Aboriginal Advisory Groups and endorsed by the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum in May 2021. The Aboriginal Inclusion Action Plan is aligned to Dhelk Dja Agreement: Safe Our Way – Strong Culture, Strong Peoples and Strong Families and underpinned by the principles in the Ngarneit Birrang Holistic Healing Framework.[3]
To support the Aboriginal Inclusion Action Plan, the Strengthening Cultural Safety Training Program was delivered across The Orange Door network, building on existing partnerships with local ACCOs. The program aims to support a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal people seeking a service, as well as the Aboriginal workforce through sustainable, locally driven implementation. The program includes employment of Cultural Safety Project Leaders to facilitate cultural safety self-assessments and provide foundational training to staff.
To expand accessibility for Aboriginal people, Aboriginal access point services have been established in Bayside Peninsula, supporting Aboriginal children, young people, adults and families to navigate the family violence service system. A second site is to be established in Barwon later in 2023 and a third site in the Mallee area is expected to commence in 2024.
Aboriginal people are significantly impacted and over-represented among The Orange Door network’s client base, with the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children highlighting Aboriginal women were 35 times more likely to experience family violence than non-Indigenous Australian women.[4]
This highlights the strong need for culturally safe and appropriate responses tailored for this community. In 2022-23, over 14,000 people provided with a response from The Orange Door identified as Aboriginal. Of these, 49.7% were adults and 50.4% were children or young people (including unborn children). This represented 7.5% of all people provided with a response from The Orange Door in 2022-23, dropping from 9.0% in 2021-22. The decrease is likely due to lower proportions of people identifying as Aboriginal in more recently opened The Orange Door areas in 2022-23.
Across Orange Door areas in 2022-23, the proportion of Aboriginal clients varied with a greater proportion of services delivered to Aboriginal clients in regional areas, ranging from 29.3% in Mallee to 3.4% in Inner Eastern Melbourne (Figure 8).[5] This can be partly explained by variation in population size, with Aboriginal people representing approximately 4.1% of the broader population in the Mallee area but only 0.3% of the broader population in Inner Eastern Melbourne.
Figure 8. Aboriginal clients as a proportion of total clients 2022-23 compared to Aboriginal population as a proportion of 2021 total population
Dhelk Dja is the key Aboriginal-led Victorian agreement that commits signatories to work together and be accountable for ensuring that Aboriginal people, families, and communities are stronger, safer, thriving and living free from family violence. It articulates the long-term partnership and directions required at a state-wide, regional, and local level to ensure that Aboriginal people, families, and communities are violence free and that services are built upon the foundation of Aboriginal self-determination.
The second Dhelk Dja 3 Year Action Plan 2023-25 was developed with the Dhelk Dja Koori Caucus and endorsed in 2023, with regional action plans being developed to support its implementation. Each of the new actions recognise the need to invest in Aboriginal culture, leadership and decision-making as the key to ending family violence in Victorian Aboriginal communities.
Allira’s story: cultural safety in Aboriginal family violence response[6]
Allira is an Aboriginal woman who relocated from another state to Victoria with her partner Bertie and her three children. Bertie is non-Aboriginal and is not the biological father of the children. The family relocated to Victoria on Bertie’s insistence.
Allira was born on Country and English is her third language. Two of her children are hers biologically, and one is a cultural adoption which is a practice in line with customs and childrearing from that community.
The Orange Door received a third-party referral for Allira and her children due to Bertie’s use of family violence towards them. Allira provided consent for the referral, and a practitioner from The Orange Door’s Aboriginal Response Team made contact that day to begin risk assessment and safety planning.
The practitioner used a cultural lens to adapt how they engaged with Allira and her children. This included asking Allira for her wisdom in child-rearing and safety planning. The practitioner also spoke with Allira about how the exploration of her Country’s message had softened due to the family violence.[7]
The practitioner consulted with their Aboriginal Practice Leader who provided information about interstate Aboriginal Interpreter Services, advice on culturally appropriate language and ensured Allira was informed and empowered about the case direction through the presence of self-determination and self-agency.
The practitioner identified that Allira and her children’s ability to return to Country was the highest priority for the family’s safety and wellbeing, given their geographical isolation and the impact of missing Country.
In safety planning for the return trip, the practitioner focused on understanding whether Allira had support systems in community and used cultural concepts from Allira’s people to address questions about violence and trauma. This included asking questions such as, ‘Who is there in the community that you can quiet yarn with?’ and ‘As we believe in you, which aunties in community will you yarn to and who will believe in you?’
Allira provided consent for the practitioner to contact interstate family violence services and make referrals on her behalf. Allira’s case was closed after the family arrived and on confirmation that the relevant services had been in contact.
Notes
[1] The Orange Door Inclusion Action Plan is a two-year plan to embed inclusion, access, and equity in the services and policies of The Orange Door network. Developed in 2019-20 with partner agencies and released in 2021, it sets out how The Orange Door network will ensure services are accessible for all clients and offer supports tailored to individual needs and experiences. More information about the statement can be found at Everybody Matters: Inclusion and Equity Statement webpage, State Government of Victoria, accessed 13 October 2022.
[2] In instances where families are referred to The Orange Door network, practitioners consider the needs of each individual family member separately. Accordingly, the number of individuals The Orange Door network works with is greater than the number of referrals received.
[3] Dhelk Dja Agreement: Safe Our Way – Strong Culture, Strong Peoples and Strong Families webpage and Nargneit Birrang - Aboriginal holistic healing framework for family violence webpage, State Government of Victoria, accessed 13 October 2022.
[4] National Plan to reduce violence against women and their children, Department of Social Services, Australian Government, accessed 26 February 2024.
[5] Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021, Indigenous Status (INGP) by Victorian Local Government AREA, [Census TableBuilder], accessed 13 October 2022.
[6] Names and identifying features of the people involved in this case study have been changed.
[7] Allira’s people believe that voice of the ancestors are always present, and that her people’s message remains with you even when one leaves Country.
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