The March 2018 The Future of Women s Refuges edition of Parity This edition of Parity is sponsored by Mission Australia.

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1 The March 2018 The Future of Women s Refuges edition of Parity A Call for Contributions March 2018 The March 2018 The Future of Women s Refuges edition of Parity This edition of Parity is sponsored by Mission Australia. Introduction Since the 1970 s until relatively recently, women s refuges have been the main service response to women and their children escaping domestic and family violence. The development and growth of the women s refuge movement right across Australia has seen the domestic and family violence sector become one of the key service components of the wider national response to homelessness. Indeed it is often pointed out that women and their children made homeless as a result of seeking to escape domestic and family violence make up the largest component of the population of people experiencing homelessness. However, in recent years women s refuges have been challenged by the changing landscape of family and domestic violence service delivery across Australian states and territories. It has been widely acknowledged for some time that women s refuges as they are currently organised and funded have been unable to meet the demand for their services. It is also agreed that there are ongoing and unresolved issues in meeting the needs of different population cohorts including single and older women experiencing homelessness, women without permanent Australian residency, transgender women, women with disabilities, women with mental health issues, women with alcohol and other drug issues, as well as the independent needs of accompanying children. The recent Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence highlighted all of the issues at stake in the prevention of and the response to family violence. It also gave particular focus to the manifold issues of meeting the crisis, transitional and ongoing housing, accommodation and support needs of women and children escaping domestic and family violence. The central role and function of women s refuges in meeting the crisis accommodation and support needs of women and the children escaping domestic and family violence is at the heart of this edition of Parity. The fundamental question here being: What is the future for women s refuges? A Framework for Discussion Chapter 1: Context Given the preeminent place of women s refuges in the domestic and family violence services system, what is their current purpose? How have the origins, development and funding arrangements of women s refuges shaped their capacity to meet the growing demand for their services? How have women s refuges evolved and developed over time to respond to changing demands? What are some of the different models of women s refuges and what accounts for the development of these different models?

2 Page 2 How have shifting feminisms impacted on the nature of women s refuge over the past four decades? How has feminism stayed constant and changed in the refuge movement? What are/have been the challenges and criticisms of feminism in the refuge sector and how has the sector responded? What has been the impact of professionalising the refuge sector, away from its activist and/or charity roots? What are the gains and losses of changes in the leadership and management models of refuges since they were first established from collective models to more formal models of operations and governance? What have been the key drivers of the demand for access to women s refuges and has the pattern of the demand for women s refuges changed over time? How and in what way have these changes impacted on the ability for refuges to meet these changing demands? What has been the significance of the development and implementation of safe at home programs for the development of women s refuges? What are the differences in the safe at home in state and territory different jurisdictions? How have state, territory and national homelessness policies impacted on the development of women s refuges and in particular their capacity to meet the changing needs of the women and children seeking to use their services? Chapter 2: Meeting Need What have been the successes and achievements of the women s refuge movement in Australia? What enabled these? What barriers do woman and children face in accessing women s refuges, and how has the refuge sector responded? How can refuges be supported to enable broader access and eligibility to their services in line with anti-discrimination policy? How has policy and practice limited or enabled the refuge sector to respond to the changing needs of survivors of violence? What level of resourcing and policy and funding model would be needed to meet the demand for appropriate domestic and family violence services? While it appears that Police family violence calls are going down, the number of women contacting family violence services is increasing. Is this possibly the result of significant changes in the domestic and family violence system since the major sector reforms that have taken place, for example, in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland? Chapter 3: Developing New Models and Services Where women s refuges are being redeveloped, what are the drivers of the models (for example, the preference in Victoria New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia for core and cluster models of refuge.) Are programs like Safe at Home having an impact on diverting women and children from requiring a refuge response? Are these programs having an impact on reducing the rates of women and children made homeless by domestic and family violence? What are the benefits of core and cluster models? Have core and cluster models improved access and enhanced outcomes for women and their children? Are the proposed benefits of a core and cluster model of refuge service delivery being realised?

3 Page 3 How have women s refuges developed to meet the needs and requirements of different and diverse communities? For example, what progress has there been in developing Aboriginal women s refuges and refuges for women from CALD backgrounds as well as refuges catering for women with AOD and metal health issues, women with disabilities, women from regional, rural and remote areas, older women and LGBTIQ women? How have domestic and family violence refuges approached inclusiveness of diverse communities? What have been the challenges and what are examples of successful service delivery? What are some key elements of best practice in service delivery in women s refuges? How can the work delivered in women s refuges and the outcomes achieved by women and children who have experienced violence be better measured? Currently the measurement is related primarily to housing and homelessness. How has the women s refuge sector contributed to policy, legislative and community change regarding gender-based violence and the impact on women and their children? Chapter 4: The Future of Women s Refuges: A Vision for the Future This chapter is intended to create the space where opinion leaders can articulate their vision for the future of women s refuges. Some key questions for consideration might include: What physical and service refuge models could best meet the needs of women and their children? Are high security models of refuge that require women to leave their jobs and leave their local areas still relevant in the current era? What are viable alternatives to women and children at high risk of family violence who require a refuge response? How can other services and agencies work with refuges to best effect? What is good practice for children in refuges? How could refuges be supported to work with children as clients in their own right? What models/theoretical frameworks should inform practice in women s refuges? What are the kinds of services that women s refuges should be able to provide? For example, financial counselling, legal services, specialist children s support services, and access to income support? How could refuges work more collaboratively with other service providers to provide the range of supports required by their clients? What steps could to be taken to ensure the adequate supply of affordable and sustainable long-term housing following the provision of the crisis support and accommodation provided by women s refuges? What steps could be taken to fast-track women and their children in women s refuges out into safe, affordable and appropriate secure housing? How will this housing be provided? How can women exiting refuge sustain their independent accommodation? What could to be done to support women exiting refuge to sustain independent accommodation and live free from family violence? How could the relationship between domestic and family violence services (women s refuges) and generalist homelessness services be better co-ordinated to ensure that all

4 Page 4 women and their children requiring a family violence response receive the specialist service response they need? Contributing to the March 2018 The Future of Women s Refuges edition of Parity Deadline: All contributions need to be submitted by COB Friday March 9th Submissions: All contributions should be submitted as Word attachments to an addressed to parity@chp.org.au Artwork: Contributors are invited to submit the artwork they would like to accompany their article. Inclusion is dependent on the space being available. If artwork is not provided and is required, itwill be selected by the Parity Editor. Word length: Contributions can be up to 1,600 words. This equates to a double page spread in Parity. Single page articles can be up to 800 words in length. Contributions of a greater length should be discussed with the Parity Editor. Questions: If you have any questions at all about contributing to this edition please contact the Parity Editor by parity@chp.org.au or ring Referencing NB: Due to space considerations, contributors are encouraged to use endnotes when referencing their Parity articles. All works that are cited or referred to in an article should be referenced. The Parity referencing protocol is very simple. All references cited in the article should be numbered consecutively and should be referenced as follows: Author(s); surname, initial(s), Date (of publication), Title, Publisher (for journals, volume and Issue number), Location, Page(s) For example: 1. Seung S 2012, Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, P Trevithick P 2003 Effective Relationship Based Practice, Journal Of Social Work Practice, vol.17, no.2, pp For more detailed information on referencing and writing guidelines for Parity see: Content By providing your contribution, you confirm and agree that (except where you have referenced or cited any other s work) the contribution is your original work and has not been copied from any other source. Use of content

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