Co-design of family-centred responses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
Responsible government
- Australian Capital Territory
Fourth Action Plan actions
- Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children
- 6 Value and engage the expertise of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and men, communities and organisations to lead in the creation and implementation of community-led solutions to build and manage change.
- 8 Develop innovative and alternative models for victim and perpetrator support that contribute to safe healing and sustainable behaviour change.
- 9 Address both the immediate impacts and deep underlying drivers of family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through collective action with governments, service providers and communities.
What are we doing?
In 2019-20 the Government committed $354,000 over four years, with an additional commitment of $150,000 in 2020-21 to work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to support development and implementation of community-led and family-centred responses to domestic and family violence. In 2021-22, the ACT Government committed an additional $790,000 over four years to strengthen domestic and family violence responses for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. These investments will aim to address recommendations from the We Don’t Shoot Our Wounded (2009) and Change our future. Share what you know (2017) reports. This initiative will also deliver on the core areas of community leadership, and children and young people, under the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2019-2028.
What have we achieved so far?
On 22 October 2019, the ACT Government publicly recognised and committed to working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community on the issues and recommendations raised in the reports, through a Ministerial Statement delivered in the ACT Legislative Assembly. The Ministerial Statement was an initial step in rebuilding trust as part of developing ongoing partnership and support for community-led responses addressing domestic and family violence.
The Office of the Coordinator-General for Family Safety is working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and representative bodies, including the Domestic Violence Prevention Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group (the Reference Group). Start-up resourcing in October 2020 supported the Reference Group to hold community consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to update the We Don’t Shoot Our Wounded report and its recommendations.
The Reference Group identified four key recommendations as priority actions.
What is next?
We will continue working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to enable community-led solutions to family violence through implementation of recommendations in the We Don’t Shoot Our Wounded report. It is anticipated that an updated report will be released in 2021-22 which will inform the development of community-led responses to support families and address and prevent domestic and family violence in the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
What difference will we make?
The intended outcome of this initiative is to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities can live safely and without fear of violence. Community-led responses, in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a strong voice and lead decision-making, are more effective and sustainable. Community-led responses are also better able to respond to the ongoing intergenerational trauma, discrimination and racism which both contribute to family violence, and may hinder some mainstream responses.