The National Family Violence Summit begins in Canberra on Tuesday and will address an issue which, despite so much education and proactive campaigning in recent years, is still very much a “hidden” epidemic.
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The vital summit will bring together the combined expertise and experience of Australia’s front-line service providers, thought leaders and political decision makers to deliver real change in the way the community as a whole works to beat family violence. It will also help keep the conversation going.
A major focus of the second summit will be the need for early intervention to break the cycle of abuse perpetuated among children exposed to family violence.
According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies report, about two thirds of women who experience violence have children and about half of those children witness the violence.
Last year, the federal government committed $20 million to early intervention such as programs for new fathers and resources for girls to help them identify the early signs of violence.
Yet frontline workers say change is slow and children's education is still grossly neglected. Educating children about the signs of family violence and the importance of respectfulness between genders will go a long way to breaking the cycle.
Facilitated by the Tara Costigan Foundation and sponsored by BaptistCare, the summit will deliver a co-ordinated agreement on how Australia can build an holistic approach to responding to family violence when it occurs, as well as preventing the cycle of family violence that produces perpetrators and victims.
The summit will also deliver signed strategic agreements between organisations on key understandings of how they can work cooperatively and build formal communication channels. Despite the significant investments in tackling family violence, this co-ordinated approach and focus on calculated outcomes is unique.
For some suffering family violence, there seems to be a fractured approach to support services.
When trying to cope with not only the physical and emotional abuse of yourself at the time, many victims of family violence have children to also consider. And for some, being pushed from pillar to post when all you want is help and support, just adds to the anguish.
