$23m DV plan for at-risk men, boys
Written by admin on September 23, 2024
A new plan to help support young men and boys at risk of engaging in family, domestic and sexual violence in a bid to provide early intervention strategies across the country.
The federal government will provide $23 million over three years to 2026-27 to 12 organisations across states and territories through the establishment of a national early intervention trial.
The trial will aim to help young men and boys aged 12 to 18 years who present with adverse childhood experiences, including family and domestic violence.
Organisations will also work to create early intervention programs to assist those who are using or at risk of using family, domestic or sexual violence.
The trial 12 sites will include mix of metropolitan, regional, and remote locations, including the Domestic Violence Action Centre in Ipswich.
It’s understood those sites will include Moree Plains and Newcastle in NSW, Hume and Greater Shepparton in Victoria, Ipswich, Logan and Rockhampton in Queensland, Playford in South Australia, Joondalup and Broome in Western Australia, the ACT, and Hobart, Launceston and surrounds in Tasmania.
The trial will provide counselling and therapeutic support to eligible young men and boys with the aim to help them avoid choosing family, sexual and domestic violence as well as assist with their recovery and healing from their own personal experiences of family and domestic violence.
Social Services minister Amanda Rishworth said the funding would help provide crucial support for boys and young men to recover and heal from their experiences of violence and stop the risk of harm escalating and continuing into their adult relationships.
“Early intervention is a key area of focus under the National Plan to End Violence against Women 2022-2032,” Ms Rishworth said.
“Supporting children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right and addressing the impacts of developmental trauma to help healing and recovery will help break future cycles of violence.
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“We know in order to achieve our shared goal of ending violence against women and children in one generation we need to be working across all four domains of the National Plan.”
Ms Rishworth said the trial will provide culturally safe and responsive, trauma and healing-informed, strengths-based and support tailored to the individual needs and circumstances of participants.
“There are currently only limited and inconsistent services available across Australia that specifically support children and young people who have experienced violence and are themselves using or at risk of using violence and this trial will help address this gap,” she said.
