I am sure that like me, readers have observed the increases and spikes in family and domestic violence over the life of the pandemic with a mixture of despair and frustration. How and when will things change for the better?
Last week I attended the Government-led National Summit on Women’s Safety (more on this below), which will contribute to the next National Plan to end violence against women and children.
I was as interested in the public commentary around the Summit as in the many important discussions at the Summit itself. As I scrolled my newsfeed there was certainly a sense that participants with lived experience were afforded limited space at the (virtual) table and this should concern us all. At the same time, I was palpably moved by presenter, Professor Marcia Langton, who spoke with passion, anger and profound insight about the need for family violence responses to be developed by First Nations women for First Nations women. To this end, it was agreed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples must have their own First Nations specific Action Plan to address family safety.
The Final Statement from Summit delegates concluded that, “Listening must continue beyond the Summit, so that all voices are heard and inform the design of actions in the next National Plan”. Indeed. We must listen more deeply and thoughtfully to those with lived experience. We must listen to the communities and cohorts for whom family and domestic violence is shaped in different ways – through intergenerational trauma, colonisation, social and economic marginalisation. And we must acknowledge the unrelenting work of all who strive to support those experiencing – and perpetrating – family violence.
FRSA members work every day with families experiencing, or at risk of, family and domestic violence. In some circumstances our members provide direct domestic and family violence support; in other cases, our members link families into specialist family violence services, while providing family law, counselling, and children and parenting supports. A number of our members work directly with perpetrators of violence – in particular, through the provision of Men’s Behaviour Change Programs.
Yet because much of the funding for family and relationship services is not explicitly earmarked for family and domestic violence support, the work of our members in this space is not always visible to governments or to the public. I take my hat off to you.
By Jackie Brady
