2008 Grants Program

$12,093 to Women’s Health Goulburn North East Inc. (WHGNE)

Common Cents

$14,000 to Rochester & Elmore District Health Service(REDHS)

Women on the Move

$8,300 to UCA - Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project 

Asylum Seeker Women’s Group

$22,000 to Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Inc. (ASRC)

Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Program

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) is committed to protecting and upholding thehuman rights of asylum seekers. It represents a practicaland innovative community response to the plight of asylum seekers through direct assistance and advocacy as well as working towards legal and policy reform.

The Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Program combines legal representation, community education, referral, network building and law and policy reform in advocating for improved responses to women seeking asylum. The program has a particular emphasis on gender based persecution including family violence and sexual assault. The program has been supported by the Women’s Trust for several years.       

The importance of quality women’s-focused legal advocacy throughout the refugee determination process that assists with both refugee and family law / family violence issues cannot be underestimated and is often highly critical to their refugee or humanitarian claim.

With the change of Federal Government the ASRC isalso working towards systematic legal and policy reform in Australia. This includes lobbying to ensure that the process for women seeking asylum is gender appropriate, with greater recognition that family violence and other forms of gender based violence fits within the definition of the Refugee Convention.

$13,800 to Women’s Health West (WHW)

Power On

$16,000 to Project Respect

Advocacy Training for Women in the Sex Industry

Project Respect was established in 1998 and challenges exploitation and violence against women in the sex industry.

Women enter the sex industry for complex reasons but generally already experience a high level of vulnerability and disadvantage. Once there these issues can be compounded by the pressures of the work and new issues, including the stigma attached to prostitution.

Project Respect has found their clients consistently expressing a need for advocacy training. This project will include active participation by women involved in the sex industry and will assist them in areas such as assertivenessand self development, including peer education and advocacy skills. Improved individual workplace safety is anticipated as a result, with women being better able to assert themselves and set boundaries with their clients

The project will also focus on lobbying for improved workplace safety and input into key bodies such as the Prostitution Control Board. The advocacy training will have a particular emphasis on skilling the participants to campaign for public policy change, and gaining a better public profile with the aim of generating sustainable long term solutions to some of the problems of prostitution.

$22,000 to Women’s Health in the North (WHIN)

Triple Ms: Modern Media Mediums

This project will deal with young women’s experience of intimate partner violence and how to effectively provide education and information to them, as well as how the media portrays the issues of violence against women.

Young women do not necessarily use or relate to the traditional language of domestic violence and there is a growing need to locate information targeting young women within a contemporary language to which they more closely relate.

The project will work with young women and research the use of new electronic media and social marketing such as Youtube, Facebook and MySpace. The project will identify gaps in communication and investigate strategies to fill them, including what language to use and how best to disseminate the information so as to provide young women with access to relevant, high quality information. The project will also aim to develop a communication model that other services can use as a resource to communicate with young people.

The project will also work with local media to promote accurate and well informed reporting of violence against women in the northern region of Melbourne, as an important aspect of a broader understanding of violence in the community.

This project will document the history and work of the Victorian Women with Disabilities Network (VWDN). It will produce a history of the VWDN, documenting their work over the past fifteen years and promoting positive images of women with disabilities - their diversity, leadership and participation.

Women with disabilities are more likely to be poorer, uneducated, unemployed and institutionalised than men with disabilities and other women in general. They can encounter discrimination on many levels and are at a significantly higher risk of violence and abuse.

VWDN believes women with disabilities must speak for themselves and that advocacymust be ‘by women with disabilities for women with disabilities’. They stress the importance of publicising a positive message that challenges the stereotypes of disability and gender and believe that policy and practice in Victoria has been positively influenced by the advocacy work of their members.

The project aims to raise community awareness of the issues facing women withdisabilities, as well as promoting a positive image. The publication will also provide a resource for community organisations andstudents and a promotional document as evidence of the role and work of VWDN in advocating for women with disabilities.

$9,000 to Matrix Guild

Non-Heterosexual Women in Aged Care

Matrix Guild Victoria Inc. was founded in 1992, by and for the benefit of lesbians over forty years of age. They are committed to the support of appropriate care and accommodation choices for older lesbians in Victoria. This includes liaising with government agencies and service providers to develop more appropriate lesbian friendly services.

Aged and disabled lesbians are often marginalised, alienated and discriminated against in existing services,with homophobic attitudes frequently prevalent and exacerbated in the aged care industry.

The Matrix Guild has been conducting a study exploring the experiences of older non-heterosexual women as recipients of services and support for older people, as well as the perspectives ofaged care service providers. They have received funding support for the research from the Reichstein Foundation.

This project will involve the co-ordination of the research data pertinent to older and disabled lesbians in aged care, and the production and printing of the report publication. Overall the project will bring the plight of aged and disabled lesbians to the attention of policy makers and will aim to significantly influence the future quality of aged care services by providing accurate research about the circumstances and unmet needs of lesbians in aged care services.

The proposed publication is a new approach to addressing issues faced by aged and disabled lesbians, as there has not been research or a publication incorporating research about lesbian issues in aged care in Victoria or Australia.

$3,500 to Good Shepherd Youth and Family Service

Researching the Gaps: Recovery Needs of Women in Domestic Violence

The Researching the Gaps project will explore the post-crisis supports needed to address the complex mental and emotional health needs which women and their children may experience following domestic violence.

The project is proceeding after initial funding by the Trust and expansion following a grant from Reichstein Foundation.It will aim to assist women in their journey away from violence by proposing an extended support model to meet fundamental needs, after crisis support, of women and children who have experienced long term and/or generational domestic violence.

The project will describe the needs of women on the Mornington Peninsula who have lived in families that have experienced generational violence. It will also  identify the Mornington Peninsula’s service delivery gaps and explore alternative types of services to meet these needs.

2007 GRANTS PROGRAM

The purpose of the Asylum Seeker Women’s Group is to create a sense of dignity, inclusion and empowerment for women asylum seekers who are denied any rightsand entitlements. The Trust has proudly supported this project for several years. The project aims to provide a safe and welcoming space for asylum seeker women who are socially isolated and economically disadvantaged as they await the final outcome of their protection visa process, and provide nurturing and empowering opportunities for their voices tobe heard in community and advocacy initiatives.

The Asylum Seeker Women’s Group, running since 2001, demonstrates how asylum seeker women without rights, need something beyond the meeting of basics of food and shelter. Their life of uncertainty and stress, particularly for single mothers, is compounded by their lack of income, cultural restraints and limited English skills. They normally have little or no opportunity to participate in society, especially with regard to access to community and recreational experiences.

Inthe Women’s Group setting, they often feel they are in a group which understands their situation, and which does not impose questions on them about their status.

With no real access to childcare, the women at least have a monthly opportunity to have their children cared for while they relax.  Being accompanied to various venues around Melbourne such as the Botanical Gardens, gives them the knowledge of inexpensive places of beauty and interest which they may re-visit at another time.

Importantly, the project helps the women to realise they are not alone in their state of uncertainty as they await the final outcome of their cases.  They are greatly supported by talking with other women asylum seekers in a relaxed environment, as well as with Asylum Seeker Project workers, Red Cross workers, and other volunteers.  At the end of their case if they have to leave the country, they will have a sense that the women’s group was one of the places where they felt welcomed and valued while in Australia.

This project aims to compile a social history of the Council of Single Mothers and their Children from 1969, when CSMC was formed, to 2006 when the Federal Government wound back income support payments to single mothers as part of its ‘welfare reforms’.

When an energetic group of ‘unwed mothers’ first got together as The Council for the Single Mother and their Children the government’s meagre financial provisions for single mothers consisted mainly of ‘milk money’ allocated under the National Disaster Fund.

CSMC becameinfluential in lobbying for the establishment of the supporting mother’s pension during the Whitlam era of the early 1970s. Five years on, the profound impact of this payment was felt as the number of babies put up for adoption in Victoria almost disappeared. Today CSMC is a dynamic organisation that has successfully advocated on behalf of single mothers and their children for nearly forty years.

This project seeks to document the experiences andinsights of CSMC so that Victorian women and policy makers alike may find inspiration in the organisations struggles and achievements.

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)

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

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’sGroupproject 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 theirchildren cared for while they relax.Beingaccompanied to various venues aroundMelbourne,gives them the knowledgeofplaces 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 womenhas 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 andfamily 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 withstudentsin 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 teachersare 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.

MacKillopFamily Services Limited ($7,500)

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 70people 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 isdirectly related to the flexibility of employment available. This flexibilityis particularlynecessary for women who are balancing work and family responsibilities.