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In this section:

Continuation of Indigenous specific Third Action Plan projects

Responsible government

  • Commonwealth

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.
    • 7 Build the workforce capability to ensure delivery of high quality, holistic, trauma-informed and culturally safe supports that respond to the complex needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children.
    • 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.
  • Respect, listen and respond to the diverse lived experience and knowledge of women and their children affected by violence
    • 10 Implement community-led and tailored initiatives to address the unique experiences and needs of communities affected by multiple forms of discrimination or inequality.

What are we doing?

Under the Fourth Action Plan, the Commonwealth has continued to fund Indigenous-led solutions funded under the Third Action Plan to keep Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children safe from violence. Projects include:

  • trauma-informed therapeutic services for Indigenous children affected by family violence to break the cycle of intergenerational violence
  • behaviour change programs for perpetrators
  • intensive family-focused case management to address behaviours that lead to family violence
  • funding to increase the capacity of a number of Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS) to deliver holistic, case managed crisis support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children experiencing family violence.

The Commonwealth Government has allocated $20.1 million between 2019–20 and 2021–22 to fund the continuation of Third Action Plan projects.

What have we achieved so far?

Under the Fourth Action Plan, Third Action Plan service providers continue to deliver trauma-informed and holistic case managed crisis support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children who have been victims of family violence.

In some locations, this has involved working with multi-disciplinary teams to support clients with complex needs and/or increasing the capacity of services to provide clients with intensive case management support.

Under the Fourth Action Plan, the Australian Government funded an extension of services in the 2019-20 Budget for 11 providers to continue to build on the success of Indigenous-led solutions funded under the Third Action Plan to keep women and their children safe from violence. This funding has extended existing services to support families across 14 locations.

To respond to the impacts of COVID-19, service providers introduced innovative methods of delivering support activities including: replacing face-to-face case management and prevention activities with virtual services and postponing activities that require significant community gatherings.

What is next?

An evaluation of Indigenous specific Third Action Plan activities was completed in 2021. The Australian Government is incorporating findings from this evaluation with outcomes from Fourth Action Plan activities to develop future supports for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children who experience family and domestic violence and assist perpetrators to change their behaviour.

Building on the success of FVPLS services delivered under the Fourth Action Plan, the Australian Government is investing in further expansion to the sector with additional funding announced as part of the 2021-22 Budget.

What difference will we make?

The intended outcome of this measure is to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children who have been victims of family violence have improved access to best-practice, trauma-informed, holistic and intensive case management support during periods of crisis.

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