Page 353 - Week 01 - Thursday, 10 February 2022

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The Family Safety Hub is designing a new response specifically for children under the age of 12 who are impacted by domestic and family violence. Work to design the response will happen this financial year, with a pilot service to be delivered in late 2022.

The Family Safety Hub is also working with the Youth Coalition to design and pilot ways to improve the knowledge and capability of our youth workers to appropriately respond to young people experiencing domestic and family violence. Training will be tested and evaluated in the first half of 2022.

Through a Commonwealth National Partnership on domestic and family violence responses, the ACT has allocated funding to Relationships Australia for Got Your Back, a peer group support program for young people aged 12 to 18. This funding will support the service from November 2020 to December 2022. The Family Safety Hub will fund an evaluation of the program in 2022.

Funding from the National Partnership has also been allocated to Doris Women’s Refuge to provide a children’s support worker.

We have made significant progress against four of five recommendations from the 2018 Domestic Violence Prevention Council Extraordinary Meeting addressing the needs of children and young people impacted by family violence. We are now taking steps to address the outstanding need for therapeutic supports through projects including Safe and Connected Youth, expansion of youth mental health services, and funding to Yerrabi Yurwang Child and Family Aboriginal Corporation.

Children and young people—Got Your Back program
(Question No 569)

Mrs Kikkert asked the Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, upon notice, on 3 December 2021:

(1) How many young people have participated in the Got Your Back peer group program each year since the year of the program’s establishment.

(2) How many people successfully completed the program on each occasion.

(3) What demographic information is collected from participants to this program and can the Minister detail the statistics.

Ms Berry: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1) Since Got Your Back was established in November 2020, 32 young people have participated in the program. An additional 31 have been supported individually by the Got Your Back coordinator with safety planning, one-on-one support or have begun the intake process to join a group.

(2) The program does not have a defined length, although it is structured around school terms. Young people can attend Got Your Back for as long as they want to until they turn 19.


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