by Cam Lucadou-Wells
Despite a national family-violence “crisis”, a South-East prevention program’s state funding is due to lapse on 30 June,
Ahead of the State Budget on 7 May, Wellsprings for Women is seeking renewed funding for its “often undervalued” family-violence prevention programs.
Chief executive Dalal Smiley said their plight was unassisted by the Federal Government’s family violence response on 1 May, which included a $925 million Leaving Violence Program.
“The federal announcement was disappointing as it has $0 allocated to prevention.
“We urge our governments to keep funding prevention because if we only focus on responding to family violence, we fail in addressing the roots of the problem.”
Australians ought to be “shocked and outraged” by the “national crisis with the increase of women being murdered every week”, Ms Smiley said.
As of 30 April, 28 women in Australia had been killed this year as a result of violence, according to Counting Dead Women Australia research.
Ms Smiley says the less extreme forms of family violence also caused life-long harms to women and children’s mental health and spanned generations.
Wellsprings’ programs particularly help women of migrant and refugee backgrounds.
“English is not their first language and they have so many struggles and challenges to deal with before they can find the space in their lives to reflect on gender equality, women’s economic security and the drivers of violence against women.”
“But we take advantage of the time they spend at Wellsprings to learn English and acquire new skills, to broach the subject of gender equality and family violence.
“Often conversations just happen over a coffee break or around the kitchen table and not always in the classroom.”
Ms Smiley says it’s difficult to demonstrate the vital impact of family-violence prevention work at a state or national level.
“Those of us working at the forefront, with communities, having conversations on gender equality and family violence, and exploring together culturally safe and tailored messages and approaches, are able to witness the changes in people’s attitudes and behaviors.
“Prevention programs work but need to happen consistently and over long-term and in a timely manner.”
With time, the programs “grow the pool of men and women whose lives are transformed”, she said.
They instill the value of raising children free of gender stereotypes and rigid roles, as well as helping couples with shared decision-making, domestic and caring duties.
A State Government spokesperson said its “nation leading work to end family violence” included helping refugee, migrant and asylum seeker women overcome barriers in seeking help.
“We are making it easier for Victoria’s diverse communities to access help when they are victims of family violence with a range of measures such as funding Wellsprings for Women.”
Separate to the prevention programs, the Government last year allocated $788,000 over two years to Wellsprings to support victim-survivors of family and sexual violence and work with perpetrators.
The Wellspring prevention program, which includes community education, has been running for six years.
