This article was authored by Noel Macnamara, National Manager, Research and Policy at the Australian Childhood Foundation. It seems to me that we may be at a tipping point in the family violence movement because people are really speaking out, men and women. It’s so important for men to break the silence around intimate partner violence. Because you actually have no idea who you’re helping when you talk about it, and signal to others that it’s an open subject for you. At some point, you might be offering a lifeline to someone: victim or perpetrator. It can be surprising sometimes as a male ..read more

‘When disruption is an understatement: children bereaved by domestic homicide’ blog article was written by guest contributor, Professor Eva Alisic from the Child and Community Wellbeing unit at the University of Melbourne. Eva is a mental health clinician and conducts research with children, young people and families dealing with traumatic experiences.  Recently we have finally seen increased attention for women killed by partner violence. While one aspect of this attention concerns the prevention of homicide, another is looking after those who are left behind when it does happen. For chi ..read more

‘Keeping children at the heart of our work in family violence’ blog article was written by Angela Weller, Lead – New Training and Resource Development at Australian Childhood Foundation.   In recent weeks the Australian Federal, State and Territory governments released the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. This plan contains a central commitment to acknowledge children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right: “A child’s worldview is shaped by the violence they see, hear and experience each day. These experiences affect their perception and ..read more

This ‘Delivering the Bringing Up Great Kids (BUGK) Program Online During COVID’ blog article was written by Stefanie Ronzoni, Senior Child Counsellor, at the Australian Childhood Foundation and Jan Dacosta, Specialist Family Violence Counsellor at EACH.   The Bringing Up Great Kids (BUGK) Program was delivered online during COVID restrictions, to a group of Mothers who had experienced family violence. Where family violence exists, the home is not safe or secure and children are fearful of what might happen to them and the people that care for them.  This  ..read more

Women and their children are traumatised by the experience of family violence. It terrifies them. It destabilises the foundations of their world. It undermines the strengths of their relationships. It can overwhelm them. Family violence is experienced deep in the minds and bodies of those who experience it. They see it. They often hear it. Their bodies react to it as a threat to their survival. They see the aftermaths of it. They sense its impact. They watch for it. It forces women and their children to know what can set it off. It teaches them to avoid answering certain questions. It shapes w ..read more

This blog is jointly written by Nicole Balfour, Team Leader of Therapeutic Services in Ovens Murray Goulburn, from the Australian Childhood Foundation team based in Albury, and Colleen Tait, the Acting Manager of the Families and Children’s Team at Junction Support Services. Based in Wodonga, Victoria, Junction Support Services has been changing lives for 30 years through supporting people to achieve their full potential.  Whether children are growing in their Mother’s belly, in another room asleep, or come home after something has happened, family violence h ..read more

This blog post has been written by Cat Albert and Vanessa Gravina of the Resilient Kids, Resilient Women project. Prior to joining the Resilient Kids Resilient Women (RKRW) project, I was the type of practitioner that highly doubted the efficacy of short term interventions withtraumatised children. And to be honest, some days I still carry doubts. After the Royal Commission into family violence, a significant amount of funding – $572 million – was injected into specialist services to begin providing what the Royal Commission proposed were the ‘most urgent recommendations’. The Resilient Kids ..read more

This article was authored by Jeanette Miller, Senior Consultant in the Parenting and Early Years Program at the Australian Childhood Foundation   As one of the Family Violence Demonstration Projects currently operating in Victoria, we provide weekly therapeutic groups for mothers and their children from birth to six years. To cater for the needs of children in this age range, we provide three different groups: one for babies, another for toddlers and another for children aged 3-6 years…and at the beginning of every term, we’ve come to expect that it will be most difficult to recruit famil ..read more

This article was authored by Joe Tucci, CEO at the Australian Childhood Foundation. With the Royal Commission into Family Violence now moving into the public hearing phase, the Foundation made its own submission. One of the arguments that we made was that family violence is an aggregated construct that in itself continues to limit the development of effective social policy. Family violence is a confused social policy construct. It is a catch all which subsumes within it multiple forms of abuse and violence perpetrated by adults against other adults in the context of an intimate relationship ..read more