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Path to Safety: Western Australia’s Strategy to Reduce Family and Domestic Violence

Responsible government

  • Western Australia

Fourth Action Plan actions

  • Primary prevention is key
    • 4 Address intergenerational trauma for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through primary prevention, including holistic healing strategies, and by strengthening connections to culture, language, knowledge and identity.
    • 5 Promote healthy and safe relationships and build gender equitable values through initiatives for children and young people.
  • 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.
    • 11 Deliver policies and services to address the disproportionate impact of violence on particular groups.
  • Improve support and service system responses
    • 16 Enable workforces to provide trauma-informed support with a focus on safety and recovery to victims and survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.
    • 17 Collaborate across services, sectors and workforces to ensure responses to women affected by domestic, family and sexual violence are coordinated, meet women’s needs, avoid women having to retell their story and promote their recovery.
    • 18 Improve access to and embed trauma-informed support for perpetrators of domestic, family and sexual violence to prevent reoffending and promote rehabilitation and treatment.
    • 20 Improve access to suitable and safe accommodation within their communities for women who have experienced domestic, family and sexual violence.

What are we doing?

The Western Australian Government’s Path to Safety Western Australia’s strategy to reduce family and domestic violence 2020-2030 sets out a whole-of-government and community plan for reducing and responding to family and domestic violence over the next decade.

The strategy is organised around focus areas:

  1. i. Work with Aboriginal people to strengthen Aboriginal family safety.
  2. ii. Act now to keep people safe and hold perpetrators to account.
  3. iii. Grow primary prevention to stop family and domestic violence.
  4. iv. Reform systems to prioritise safety, accountability and collaboration.

Path to Safety has been informed by data analysis, research, comprehensive consultations across Western Australia starting in late 2018, and work with experts from government, academia and the specialist family and domestic violence sector. It is contextualised by the voices and lived experience of the Western Australian community reflecting that ending family and domestic violence is everybody’s business.

What have we achieved so far?

Path to Safety was released in July 2020 along with the First Action Plan which outlines 26 actions covering the period to mid-2022. This action plan is about responding to COVID-19 consolidating existing efforts and partnering for change.

Path to Safety’s release was accompanied by a $23 million investment package from the State Government to respond to family and domestic violence as part of WA’s Recovery Plan for COVID-19, comprising:

  • $8.6 million to employ additional outreach workers to support women and children fleeing family and domestic violence;
  • $6.7 million for family violence response teams that support victims following police call-outs;
  • $4 million to expand the new women’s refuges in the Peel region and Kwinana;
  • $123,000 for a program to support women who are residing at family and domestic violence refuges to gain employment skills, access career training or retraining and attend a range of workshops and short courses to support their pathways to employment;
  • $2.6 million to extend the Kimberley Family Violence Service trial by two years; and
  • $1.1 million over two years for counselling, advocacy and support services.

What is next?

Continued implementation of actions outlined in the first action plan and the monitoring of their progress through coordinated, cross government effort.

In 2021, the Western Australian Government made a further $60 million commitment to combat family and domestic violence, support survivors and break the cycle of abuse. This investment will align with Path to Safety, Closing the Gap targets and WA’s responses to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work report.

What difference will we make?

Path to Safety overviews what needs to be done to reduce family and domestic violence over the next decade and will guide collective effort to achieve this – across government, community, justice services and business.

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