Culturally Appropriate Family and Domestic Violence Services
Responsible government
- Western Australia
Fourth Action Plan actions
- Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children
- 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.
- Respect, listen and respond to the diverse lived experience and knowledge of women and their children affected by violence
- 11 Deliver policies and services to address the disproportionate impact of violence on particular groups.
What are we doing?
The Western Australian Government’s Path to Safety Western Australia’s strategy to reduce family and domestic violence 2020-2030 includes two priority actions about: (i) ensuring actions to stop family and domestic violence are flexible, culturally responsive and culturally secure to better meet the needs of Aboriginal people; and (ii) developing tailored responses that consider people’s diversity and intersecting needs.
The culturally appropriate family and domestic violence services initiative is about ensuring culturally appropriate supports are available to Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women experiencing family and domestic violence.
What have we achieved so far?
A competitive grant process resulted in two community-based agencies each receiving grant funding to:
- improve service pathways and reduce barriers to access support services for women and children from Aboriginal and CALD backgrounds experiencing family and domestic violence;
- provide training to increase competency levels for service providers who are likely to come into contact with potential or possible CALD victims of family and domestic violence; and
- build the capacity of community leaders and elders in Western Australia’s Aboriginal and CALD communities to help address family and domestic violence.
Grant recipients Ishar Multicultural Women’s Health Centre and Langford Aboriginal Association continue to respectively deliver:
- The state-wide ‘Free from Family and Domestic Violence’ program’s cultural competence training for family and domestic violence service providers and capacity building in targeted CALD communities and multicultural organisations to enable them to recognise and respond to family and domestic violence. Since commencing, the ‘Free from Family and Domestic Violence’ initiative has delivered 30 community workshops to various CALD communities that have been attended by 981 participants. A further 198 participants have participated in cultural awareness training for the mainstream service providers and family and domestic violence sector.
- The Family Safety Project aims to improve the safety and wellbeing of Aboriginal women experiencing family violence in metropolitan and regional locations. The Family Safety Project involves the development of a program using a co-designed approach to build cross-cultural awareness of family and domestic violence and help victims get the support they need. A Community Reference Group comprising Aboriginal women with lived experience, Aboriginal Elders, Aboriginal young people and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations oversee the development of the program. Between 1 July 2019 – 31 December 2020, the Aboriginal Family Safety Project has delivered a total of 14 metropolitan workshops with 104 participants to inform the project. Regional and remote consultations are currently underway, with consultations having taken place in the Kimberley and Pilbara.
What is next?
These two grant programs will build on current evidence and identify gaps to support future planning for initiatives targeting the support needs for Aboriginal women and women from CALD backgrounds.
What difference will we make?
These projects are supporting community organisations with cultural expertise to engage at a local level with victims, perpetrators, community leaders and community members to raise awareness about family and domestic violence and support victims to access culturally appropriate supports and services.