Dollars to fight domestic violence

BY PAUL CLARK

The Inner West Council has announced it will spend more than $300,000 over four years to address domestic and family violence in the Inner West.

“Domestic and family violence is actually a significant community safety issue in the inner west,” said Administrator of Inner West Council Richard Pearson in a media release.

Mr Pearson referred to information provided by local Police Local Area Commands which he said showed domestic violence was the cause of a very high proportion of assaults.

“These are dreadful statistics that show no one is immune.

“We have a wonderful community full of broad-minded, accepting people and yet domestic and family violence is a real problem. It’s not something that Council will ignore,” he said in the media release.

As part of the Inner West Council strategy, a number of domestic and family violence related programs in the local government area will continue to be supported.

These include the Speak Out Awareness Raising Campaign, Love Bites, the Inner West Respectful Relationship Project and White Ribbon Day.

Manager of Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre, Roxanne McMurray, admires the Council’s continued work with the Speak Out Awareness Raising Campaign.

“The campaign, an initiative of the former Leichhardt Council, is brave.

“It says we’ll speak about an uncomfortable truth in our community, and even more so, as a community we’re all standing up and doing something about it,” she said.

Importantly, it is a campaign that is producing tangible results.

“Our centre has experienced a 39 percent increase in people seeking help for domestic violence since the Speak Out campaign started just over a year ago,” Ms McMurray said.

CEO Of White Ribbon Australia, Libby Davies, is also pleased to see Council support for White Ribbon continue.

“The Inner West Council’s support of White Ribbon through action on White Ribbon Day is a positive initiative.

“Over 83 percent of the Inner West Council’s community are males over the age of 15.

“White Ribbon’s focus is on the positive role men play to influence and prevent the actions of those few men who use violence in order to break the cycle of men’s violence against women in our society,” she said.

The Inner West Council believe the different programs will complement each other and work towards a common goal.

While the White Ribbon campaign focuses on the role men can play as positive role models, the Inner West Respectful Relationships Project engages with children and young people aged 3-17 years.

A Spokesperson for the Inner West Council said, “The project aims to provide every child and young person in the Inner West Council local government area the opportunity to participate in respectful relationships education.”

The Inner West Respectful Relationships Project operates in partnership with the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN).

The Council also funds NAPCAN to deliver another program called Love Bites.

Love Bites delivers training to 400 young people aged 14 – 16 years through an interactive school-based domestic, family and relationship violence and sexual assault prevention education program.

The Inner West Council’s community engagement is wide ranging and goes beyond these programs to include community groups, sporting clubs, local business and police Local Area Commands.

It is an engagement strategy that CEO of Domestic Violence NSW, Moo Baulch, sees as a positive sign of growing local government involvement in addressing these issues.

Ms Baulch said that councils in NSW vary in the scale of resources they have committed to stopping domestic violence.

She also said that for some time councils generally were unsure of their role and left such programs to the Federal and State levels of government.

That is now changing.
“Some councils have well advanced programs in place for the prevention of domestic violence while others are just testing the waters, or have not yet become involved,” she said.

Ms Baulch said the involvement of councils is important in that it helps provide a local focus for all resources, including those that may be established in the community without government funding.

“Overall, this commitment from the Inner West Council is encouraging to see,” she said.

Ms McMurray was similarly positive.

“Council’s announcement of $300,000 over four years to combat domestic violence in the inner west is a strong indication of Council’s commitment to reduce domestic violence and not shy away from local government’s role in providing the foundations for safe and healthy neighbourhoods,” she said.

While the Council initiative has been well received, the experts involved with the programs believe that there is a lot more work to do.

“I suspect that the findings of the Respectful Relationships Project report may indicate additional funds will be needed.

“In the meantime we can take this announcement as a welcome and critical commitment from council which gives some confidence in planning for the next few years,” Ms McMurray said.

Ms Davies also identified a requirement to keep the issue at the forefront of public discourse.

“In Australia, on average at least one woman per week is killed by a current or former partner.

“The more attention we place on this issue, the louder our voices will become and heard,” she said.

Mr Pearson says The Inner West Council policy demonstrates a long term commitment to tackling domestic violence in the area.

“Inner West Council has locked in funding for four years to consolidate this great work.

“I’m pleased and proud that we can work with local groups on innovative initiatives to help combat this problem,” Mr Pearson said.