The Victorian Women's Trust

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2006 Grants Program

Royal Women’s Hospital Foundation ($15,000)

Violence Against Women: Good clinical practice for health professionals

The project will promote a model of good clinical practice for health professionals, sensitive to the needs of women who have experienced violence with applicability across Australia. The Royal Women’s Hospital is leading the way in recognising that a significant number of women accessing hospital services have experienced violence and that all forms of violence have an impact on women’s health. It is the first Australian hospital to develop a clinical practice guideline to direct the practice of health professionals as a step to work towards prevention of violence against women. The Women’s Safety Strategy in Victoria has mostly focused on legal and direct services responses. There is a clear and urgent need to promote a model of good clinical practice which will address the health impacts of violence and the barriersthat impede access to preventative healthmeasures for victims/survivors of violence. This project aims to develop material which will assistin the promotion of such a model.

Brenda House Inc ($9,950)

Organisational Development/Consolidation of Linkages Inc. - focus on expansion of family violence service delivery

This project will initiate staged processes to develop seven family violence crisis services in the Eastern Metropolitan Region (EMR) into a coordinated administration and policy format, thereby freeing up resources to expand service delivery options in accordance with current cross-government initiatives. Together these services provide both statewide and aregional crisis accommodation and outreach response to women and children livingwith and escaping violence. Many years ago these seven services started to meet together as ‘Linkages’ for the purpose of mutual support and a combined voice to better address the needs of our clients. The Victorian Government’s new approach to family violence involves the police, justice and human services working together to develop an integrated system to respond to family violence.This project will free up time for the seven agencies to focus on important service delivery, and also mean that Linkages, as a group with one voice, can better provide a meaningful and collaborative lobby group on behalf of our clients.

Emma House Domestic Violence Services Inc. ($10,560)

VAWIS Women’s Health Capacity Building Project (VWHCBP)

The Violence Against WomenIntegrated Services (VAWIS) Women’s Health Capacity Building Project aims to build the capacity of the health sector to identify and respond to women who may have experienced family violence, presenting to health services, (in particular, Accident and Emergency).VAWIS is a group of services in Warrnambool who have made a commitment to work in partnership to develop a coordinated response to community safety and crime prevention issues with particular regard to women’s safety. Membership is open to organisations and community members who are committed to addressing the issue of violence against women. VAWIS partners have identified that response from the health sector in Warrnambool to women who experience violence can be improved. For many women who are experiencing violence, the only contact they havewith an outside organisation is their local hospital. Currently there isminimal or no screening for family violence and the Project aims to identify, discuss and assist in the development ofways to manage disclosures and identify evidence of violence, which would include adopting the proposed common risk assessment framework. VAWIS is a partnership of all key agencies in Warrnambool that deal directly or indirectly with violence against women issues.

3CR Radio Women on the Line Program ($10,000)

Women on the Line’s 20th Anniversary Archive Project

Women on the Line is a weekly current affairs radio program covering issues affecting women, produced at 3CR CommunityRadio in Melbourne and broadcast nationally. It has been presented and produced entirely by women since 1986.Women on the Line’s “20th Anniversary Archive Project” will revisit issues facing women in the past20years which are represented in 3CR’s archives and will comprise eight half-hour programs using material from these extensive archives. Women on the Line is one of Australia's few women's national current affairs programs. The eight programs will cover a broad range of issues affecting women in the past 20 years. The project will make an important and timely contribution to the feminist debate in Australia, also providing an opportunity to reflect on how that debate has developed over the past 20 years. The serieswill also be made freelyavailable to download via the internet, and by creating a CD ROM of the Archive Project.

Royal Children's Hospital: Mental Health Service ($50,000)

The Peek-a-Boo Club (Baby and Mother's group)

The Victorian Women’s Trust thanks the Bokhara Foundation and the Grosvenor Foundation for helping make this grant possible.

The Peek-a-Boo club is an infant/mother therapeutic program for infants from birth to 30 months, where the infant and mother have been exposed to family violence.It uses an experiential, activity based and interactive format that creates a therapeutic arena for the infant and motherto form and consolidate healthy attachment patterns. This group work intervention is based on the premise that exposureto intimate relational violence and the sheer need to survive in such a context can often preclude a mother’s ability to focus on their infant’s attachment needs. The aim is to positively alter the developmental pathway of the infants and the infant/mother relationship, where there has been exposure to severe family violence. The program will explore issues of power and control, respectful expression of feelings, understanding cultures of violence and keeping safe. It also aims to enhance and empower the mother’s sense as a woman and as a parent.

Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project ($8,000)

Asylum Seeker Women’s Group

The essence of the project, Asylum Seeker Women’s Group, is to create a sense ofdignity and inclusionfor women asylum seekers who are denied any rights and entitlements. The Asylum Seeker Women’sGroup project which began in 2001in a very small way, has demonstrated that women asylum seekers without rights, need something beyond the meeting of basic needs (such as shelter, food, medical). Their life of uncertainty and stress, particularly as single mothers, is compounded by their lack of income. They normally have little or no opportunity to participate in society, especially with regard to their having access to community and recreational experiences. In the women’s group, they often feel they are in a group which understands their situation and which does not impose upon them questions about their status. The women have fled their countries because of conflict, violence and generally being at risk. They are from a wide range of cultural, religious and social backgrounds from many different countries. With no real accessto child care, the women who have children at least have a monthlyopportunity to have their children cared for while they relax.Being accompanied to various venues aroundMelbourne, gives them the knowledgeof places of beauty and interest which they may re-visit at another time and which do not cost anything to enter, eg Botanical Gardens. Importantly, the project helps them to realise that they are not alone in their state of uncertainty as they await the final outcome of their cases.

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Inc ($30,000)

Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Program

This project provides a women’s-focused response to the key issues for asylum seeker women, such as family violence, through legal representation, awarenessraising, education, cross-referral, network building and policy and law reform.Unique and complex issues arise in the interrelationship between family law and refugee law. It remains crucial that asylum seeker women experiencing family violence are advised of their rights and their legal options in relation to both refugee law and family law. Without specialized advice, these women may remain in situations of violence and fail to seek assistance due to a fear of the consequences to their refugee claims. Since the Women’s Program was established within the ASRC’s Legal Program two years ago, our work with asylum seeker women has provided us with invaluable insight and expertise in relation to the issues facing women asylum seekers. There is no other program in Australia that is tailored to meet the needs of women asylum seekers so broadly. We are well placed to use this experience to advocate for individual women experiencing family violence and raise awareness in the broader community aswell as advocate for substantivelegal and policy reform to ensure just outcomes for our clients. Our Women’s Advocates combine knowledge of family law and family violence law,together with their experience in refugee law to assist female clients. We have well developed networks within the community sector which assist in cross referrals as well as assisting women in accessing other services they require, whether it be services such as safe accommodation, counselling or a support group.

Gippsland Women’s Health Service ($6,000)

Respectful Relationships Violence Free

This project will to provide support, training and resources for Secondary Schoolteachers and nurses in the remoteareas of East Gippsland to raise awareness within their school communities about family violence, and to increase curriculum coverage of the issues in a variety of contexts to work withstudents in these schools.Gippsland Women’s Health Service (GWHS) has just completed an audit of all the Secondary Schools in Gippsland. GWHS was also concerned about the availability of family violence resources and the comfort level of teachers addressing the issue of violence in classrooms. There is little opportunity for student discussion or awareness raising around family violence in Gippsland secondary schools and resources to support teachers are minimal. The project offers an opportunity for key staff to discuss ways of introducing this sensitive area to students and to explore effective strategies for student discussion of the issues,while providing staff with information about family violence statistics in Gippsland andthe resources and referral services available to schools.

MacKillop Family Services Limited ($7,500)

Family LiteracyProject. (FLiP)

Through our Family and Community Services Program at St Anthony’s Family Centre in Footscray, MacKillop Family Services provides a broad range of services from parenting information and support, early intervention to intense support for families facing statutory issues, and a number of capacity development initiatives supporting CALD communities. Our literacy project (FLiP) is seeking to enhance the personal literacy of women within Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities from Sudan, Vietnam, Somalia and Ethiopia. The women who come to the Western Education Centre (at StAnthony’s Family Centre in Footscray) are oftenvulnerable and self conscious.Asking for literacy help is very difficult. When they can access private tuition in a familiar friendly environment, they are more likely to respond. Many women from CALD communities have access to or have completed the formal 500 hours of Government provided structured English classes. However, their opportunity to practise skills and integrate theoretical knowledge is sometimes very limited. The project acknowledges and recognizes the particular difficulties these women face when accessing literacy programs. The FliP Project will build upon this foundation in an informal but practical way so as to further develop personal confidence.

2005 Grants Program

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre ($30,000)

Women’s Human Rights Advocate

The Women’s Human Rights program seeks to improve the lives of asylum seeker women in Victoria through a combination of women’s focused legal advocacy and referral. The program also uses community education to highlight the complex difficulties for women seeking asylum, and policy and law reform aimed at exposing and challenging discriminatory and unjust laws that affect women.

This project was initially funded by the Trust in the 2003 Grants program, and has assisted many women with important legal needs.

Federation of CommunityLegal Centres (Vic) ($10,000)

Women’s Voices for Justice and Human Rights project

The systemic discrimination suffered by women at the hands of the justice system, and gender bias of the law are well documented. All too often women’s experiences are minimised, discounted and overlooked. With sustained and strategic effort this project will result in the experiences of disadvantaged women living under the threat of violence shaping policy in a range of influential public policy forums.

CARA ($11,500)

Young Mums Support Program

The Young Mums’ Support program has been designed to help reduce social isolation, provide education and early intervention strategies and reduce thenecessity for Department of Human Services involvement. It also offers support to young mothers who currently do not access mainstream services. CARA’s Young Mums’ residence, which is known as Morgan House, has been fully operational for three years and provides 24 hour support, accommodation and education to at risk young mothers and their babies.

Hotham Mission ($8,100)

Asylum Seeker Mothers Group

The essence of the Asylum Seeker Mothers Group is to create a sense of dignity and inclusion for women asylum seekers who are denied any rights andentitlements.This project is arguably one of the most popular projects with our supporters, which is one of the many reasons why the Trust has included the Mothers Groupin our last three funding rounds.It isalso because the project formula works incredibly well, and because funding to asylum seeker women remains a high priority area as they make up one of the most vulnerable groups of women living in Victoria.

Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-Operative ($18,000)

Robinvale’s Women’s Capacity Building Project

Munatunga Elders Aboriginal Corporation, in conjunction with the Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative, wishes to build upon the capacity of all Koorie women within our community. Often employment opportunities are far and few betweenand Robinvale has many young women who lack the capacity to care for younger children, often because they are young(teenagers) and lack life experience.

This project seeks to provide educational training through working with TAFE for a General Certificate of Education and certificates in Information Technology and others. The Elders wish to provide parenting courses to enable these women to help build a stronger community of Koorie women in Robinvale.

Whitelion ($8,000)

Young Women’s Outreach Program

The Young Woman’s Outreach Program provides flexible, holistic and personalised support to young women during the difficult transition from custody in the juvenile justice system back into the broader the community.The Young Women’s Outreach Program aims to address the difficulties young women face re-establishing themselves in the community after a period of incarceration in Parkville Youth ResidentialCentre, and assists them within the context of their own lives to find a comfortable place for themselves in the community.

Urban Seed (Collins Street Baptist Benevolent Society) ($10,749)

Credo Recreation Project (Women’s Component)

Urban Seed is a small inner city community organisation combining street work in the heart of Melbourne with education programs and a strong independent voice on urban, social and political issues including homelessness, drugaddiction, problem gambling and poverty. Urban Seed’s street work is centred on Credo Café, the venue for Urban Seed’s open lunch program.

Between 50 and 70 people attend this open lunch each day. The women’s activities within Urban Seed’s Recreation Program are designed to link women together to form relationships that nurture self-esteem and encourage growth and healing.

WIRE (Women’s Information and Referral Exchange Inc) ($15,550)

Better Work and Family Balance for Women in the non-government sector

This project will improve work and family balance for women working in small organisations in the Victorian non-government sector through demonstrating effective modelsof change.Women's economic well-being is reliant on their ability to participate in the labour market. At the same time, women's labour market participation is directly related to the flexibility of employment available. This flexibility is particularly necessary for women who are balancing work and family responsibilities.

2004 Grants Program

In 2004 eight projects totalling $101,150 received funding. This could not have been achieved without generous financial support from donors and members - these contributions arecritical to fund projects each year. We are also grateful for the assistance from the Melbourne Community Foundation, which made financial contributions to the Biala Peninsula and Whitelion projects. Special thanks must also go to the VWT Granting and Evaluation Committee for their help in evaluating projects.
The Victorian Women's Trust 2004 grant recipients were:

Bethany Community Support ($7,000)
In partnership with the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, Bethany Community Support will run 40 workshops for women in the Geelong region who have histories of sexual, emotional or physical violence, substance abuse, mental illness and relationship issues. Run by the Women's Circus (and previous grantee of the Women's Trust), the workshops will be conducted in safe, fun and supportive environments.

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) ($26,000)
This grantwill continue the funding of the Women'sAdvocacy Coordinator at the ASRC in Footscray. This project is designed, by using a community development model and feminist principles, to empower asylum seeker women to be able to advocate for themselves in areas that affect their daily quality of life i.e. health care,education and social justice.

Werribee Legal Service ($20,000)
The 'Wyndham Family Violence Support Project' will provide a two-day a week service dedicated to addressing family violence. This will include legal advice for women who use the service, as well as training sessions for workers dealing with family violence and educational sessions at local schools as a preventative strategy. This project continues the Trust'sdedication to tackling the problem of family violence.

Royal Women's Hospital Foundation ($14,400)
Involving women from post natal groups in the northern suburbs of Melbourne (with a particular focus on Arabic and Turkish speaking women), this project 'Picturing Motherhood' will photograph aspects of the women's lives that they feel are under-represented in the mainstream portrayals of early motherhood. This grant feeds into the Trust's area of concern of the systematic devaluing of women's unpaid work. The photos will result in an exhibition at the Royal Women's Hospital.

Hotham Mission ($7,750)
This project will maintain the VWT's support of the Asylum Seeker Mothers Group that holds meetings and provides recreational outings for asylum seeker mums and their families. The project will also involve guest speakers for the group on topics such as women's health. Participants are encouraged to share their stories through artistic means in a safe, welcoming environment.

Whitelion ($10,000)
This funding supports Whitelion's 'Purple Support Service', a "one stop shop" providing post-release support for young women who have served a custodial sentence in a Victorian juvenile justice centre. The organisation provides support for these young women through mentoring, employment programs, recreation, health activities, personal development, and crisis support, including financial assistance.

Biala Peninsula Early Intervention Program ($5,000)
Biala Peninsula provides support to families with children who have developmental disabilities. This project will establish regular mother and toddler mornings within the new Mornington East area, a newly developed housing estate. A Biala worker and early childhood teacher will be present at each meeting to help with supporting these families.