By Laura Wakely
A NEW program in Hume is making sure women and children dealing with family violence don’t fall through the gaps.
The Hume Strengthening Risk Management Demonstration Project (SRMDP) includes representatives from a number of agencies, including welfare, police, health and justice, working together to respond to victims of family violence.
The project is based on a similar program in the United Kingdom, which has been shown to reduce risk and repeat victimisation for women experiencing family violence.
There are two organisations working on the project in Victoria, with one in the City of Hume helmed by Berry Street and a second in Geelong, where the project is run by Bethany Community Support.
Berry Street Northern Family and Domestic Violence Services Manager Felicity Rorke said each team had a project co-ordinator, women’s case manager, children’s case manager and a men’s case manager.
“There’s no system (before now) that brings all this information together,” Ms Rorke said.
“It’s about sharing information about women and children so we can identify a better plan for keeping them safe.” Ms Rorke and her team recently travelled to the UK where they learnt more about how the model had helped reduce risk and increase safety of women and children.
Hume had one of the highest incidents of family violence in the past financial year, with 2037 reports in the police service area.
“It’s increasing, but at the same time we’re increasing and becoming more sophisticated around our responses,” Ms Rorke said.
She said the SRMDP would also help respond to the children who witness and are victims of domestic violence to “break” the cycle.
“A lot of women ring us where their children are repeating patterns of behaviour, similar to their violent partners,” Ms Rorke said.
“It’s often more complicated. The mother often feels that she is responsible for the impact of the violence on the children due to remaining in the violent relationship hoping the violence will end.
“Our society makes it difficult for women to leave these relationships due to the cost of living and family violence perceived as a ‘private issue’, therefore ‘it’s their fault’.”
Ms Rorke said the State and Federal Government’s had made huge commitments in family violence, but hoped funds would continue so that the SRMDP could be rolled out across the state.
For more information on the project or to access Berry Street Family Violence services contact co-ordinator Melissa O’Halloran on 9450 4700.
