Page 2206 - Week 06 - Thursday, 6 June 2019
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year, directorates will be reviewing these initiatives to determine the best approach. Transitioning these initiatives out of the safer families package creates funding capacity for new initiatives. This has also enabled the government to continue to enhance its investment in front-line worker training and the Room4Change program and extend the first family safety hub pilot program for an additional 12 months.
Reviewing the impact of the first phase and reflecting on what has been learnt over the last three years has helped inform future priorities for the safer families package. To ensure that safer families funding continues to be directed towards the highest priorities and that there is capacity to respond to emerging issues, initiatives will be prioritised that focus on building whole-of-government and multi-agency domestic and family violence capacity, capability and infrastructure; improving the capacity of front-line domestic and family violence services to meet increased demand; and supporting the testing of new approaches for preventing and addressing domestic and family violence, particularly those generated through the family safety hub.
With those criteria in mind, the government has invested a total safer families package funding envelope of $24 million over four years. Following a community consultation in 2018, the government has committed $813,000 over four years to develop and implement the ACT family violence death review, which was a commitment included in the 2016 government response to domestic and family violence. The review will analyse and report on all domestic and family violence-related deaths and support regular system-wide reviews. These reports will help us identify the best ways to prevent deaths from domestic and family violence occurring in the future.
Future work on preventing and responding to family violence for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community will align with the principles of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement for 2019-28 and support self-determination. There are two community-led reports that set out priorities for action to address family violence. They are the We don’t shoot our wounded 2009 report and the 2017 Change our future: share what you know report from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Forum: Domestic and Family Violence.
In the budget, the government has committed $354,000 over four years to work with representatives from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, including the elected body and the Domestic Violence Prevention Council’s new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reference group to develop a specific action in response to the recommendations of these reports and support community-designed responses.
There is a long way to go to fully realise the objectives outlined by both reports, and working with the community to address family violence is now embedded in the government’s commitment to the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement for 2019-28. The objectives of these reports include improved family-centred supports for those impacted by domestic and family violence; prevention and de-escalation of domestic and family violence; and diverting men who use violence from the justice system, where appropriate, to reduce demand on the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
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