Family and Domestic Violence Programs for Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience in Communities

Running head: FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS FOR REDUCING
VULNERABILITY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE IN COMMUNITIES
FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS FOR REDUCING
VULNERABILITY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE IN COMMUNITIES
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Author Note

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS FOR REDUCING
VULNERABILITY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE IN COMMUNITIES
1
Social Injustice is present in Australia from time immemorial. Since the colonisation
of Australia, these problems are prevalent. The victims of domestic violence and injustice are
mostly women and children in Australia. Domestic violence has been the most significant and
prominent social evil that has affected millions of women and children across the country
(Australians Together, 2020).
Domestic Violence is a type of violence in which abuse or violence is predominant
within a marriage or cohabitation. In the context of this paper, one of the spouses or partners
commits brutality on the other spouse or partner, and it often extends towards children or
young individuals living in the same family. There are quite a few ways in which this
violence can take place that includes emotional, verbal, physical, sexual, and economic
abuses. These abuses often lead to the death or murder of oppressed individuals. On a global
scale, it has been observed that women and children are the ones who face the most extreme
form of violence (García-Moreno & Stöckl, 2013). This paper will delve deeper into the
available articles on the internet, researching about the programs for reducing vulnerability
and building resilience in the community of family and domestic violence.
Dunkley, A., & Phillips, J. (2015). Domestic violence in Australia: a quick guide to the
issues. Parliamentary Library.
Dunkley and Philips’ paper is an elaborately researched one explaining the prevalence, risk
factors, at-risk groups, attitudes, reporting and policing, social and economic costs, and
government responses of domestic violence. The authors state that the most common form of
violence against women is domestic violence. The paper contains a few statistical data that
show how much are women in Australia vulnerable to domestic violence from the current or
the former partner. Out of all the forms of violence, sexual abuse is the most prominent one
affecting women. The authors also discussed that gender inequality is the most is one of the

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS FOR REDUCING
VULNERABILITY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE IN COMMUNITIES
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critical reasons that cause this type of violence. Apart from this, other risk factors include
alcohol and drug addiction, which also plays a vital role in the increasing rate of domestic
violence. It has also been observed that women who have met with any abuse during
childhood have one and a half times more chance of facing abuse in adulthood. This review
article also identifies pregnancy, separated women, younger women, indigenous women, and
women with various other constraints at an increased risk of suffering from domestic
violence. The authors have also stated that most women facing abuse do not report to the
police, and when they complain, they face much heightened further abuse. The police have
also shown reluctance in investigating and taking steps in case of domestic violence.
Domestic violence has also lead to an increase in the homicide rate by 61%. People with
financial constraints are also significantly affected by domestic violence. Thus, the author
proved the effect of domestic violence exerts on women in Australia (Dunkley & Phillips,
2015).
Child Family Community Australia. (2019). Blueprint for reform: Removing barriers to
safety for victims/survivors of domestic and family violence who are on temporary visas.
This article is based on the procedures by maintaining which domestic violence can be
prevented or reduced on victims who are on temporary visas in Australia. According to this
journal, the victims should be provided with quite a few rights that might improve their way
of living, which include they should be given the right to promote their wellbeing and safety,
legal, health, education, stable visa, and social security. The paper also suggested three
programs in which access to children’s and women’s safety can be improved. The first
program is about the way in which the migration system can be improved so that the victims
of domestic violence can get access to protection and justice. The second program discusses
how the access and eligibility to use support from the government should be dependent on the
safety of the children or women and not their status of the migration. The third program states

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS FOR REDUCING
VULNERABILITY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE IN COMMUNITIES
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that there should be fully equipped and expert services for the victim or abused women and
children to access maintaining cultural competency and expertise in both the genders. The
paper also vividly discusses the risk factors in each proposed category and has recommended
the process by which these steps can be carried out and implemented (García-Moreno &
Stöckl, 2013) .
Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia. (2020). Submission to inform
the development of the Fourth Action Plan under the National Plan to Reduce Violence
against Women and their Children 2010-22 . Federation of Ethnic Communities'
Councils of Australia.
This article by Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia (FECCA) discusses,
that there still happens to be a huge gap in the policies of National Plan to Reduce Violence
afain women and children which needs to be addressed at the earliest to bring forward a
change that might reduce their vulnerability and build resilience in them. One of the main
concern of FECCA is to look over the culturally and linguistically diverse communities
across the whole of the continent and understand the extent to which they are victimised and
how that can be overcome. The paper states that the facors that make women more vulnerable
to domestic violence include lower technological knowledge, lack of English proficiency,
dependewncy on male visa sponsor, weak financial condition, lower level of education and
disability. There are also a few programs discussed in this paper which elaborately discusses
the ways in which violence can be reduced against children and women by performing
preventive activities; the ways in which sexual abuse against children and women can be
reduced; by identifying and addressing the impact of domestic violence and abuse on women
and children belonging to culturally and linguistically diverse communities; by addressing the
effect of abuse on disable women and by improving workforce ability. According to this
journal, the programs that can be implemented when any of the scenarios are observed are

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS FOR REDUCING
VULNERABILITY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE IN COMMUNITIES
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also discussed in the paper which include arranging accommodation for the affected
individuals, providing support to the abused individuals for long term or till the time they
need and providing them the access to take help of the justice system to alleviate their
sufferings (Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, 2020).
inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence. (2019). Concerns Relating to the
Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Act 2018.
In this paper, inTouch explains the concerns and problems of the Migration Amendment Act,
2018. Being a non profitable organisation, inTouch had achieved success in providing the
refugee and migrant communities various programs for protecting them from domestic
violence and decreasing their vulnerability. Their programs include identifying the instances
of domestic violence and designing the preventive intervensions for the crisis and also the
support required post the crisis and recovery. They have in-language and in-culture supports
as well for providing better and appropriate services. In this article the Migration Amendment
Act which is implemented from 2018 and their modes of functioning is described. The
motive of the Act is to ameliorate the process of managing family violence among women
and children and implement the program services for them and thus building uo integrity in
them. In this paper inTouch raises the concerns as how this set of law would help in
alleviating the issues faced by the refugee and migrant women. This article also elaborates on
the issues for onshore and offshore applicants. It states that the onshore applicants might get
discouraged by the new reuirements this ammendement act requires and not complain about
their condition and pain. The issues that the offshore applicants would face because of this act
include they would not be able to bring their wife from another country in Australia which
would impact the woman a great deal and make her ashamed of everything and even if the
permission to bring their wives in Australia is sanctioned it would be a lengthy and tedious
affair which might lead to the women being vulnerable to violence and frustration. The

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS FOR REDUCING
VULNERABILITY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE IN COMMUNITIES
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program this journal discusses include establishment of proper law and order to help the
people in need and inform everyone about the availabvle laws which can help them by the
help of campaigns (inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence).
The National Advocacy Group on Women and their Children on Temporary Visas
Experiencing Violence. (2018). Report of National Advocacy Group on Women on
Temporary Visas Experiencing Violence.
This article is quite an important and knowledge enlightening one which explains the
problems faced by vulnerable women on temporary visas suffering from domestic violence. It
states that they have limitations and obligations in asking for justice on facing domestic
violence as they are frightened of getting deported from Australia, their language and cultural
differences. This leads to an increase in their vulnerability which further aids the perpetrators
to cause more havoc on them. There is a lack of statistical data regarding these scenarios. So,
before writing this article, the advocacy group on women and their children on temporary
visas experiencing violence conducted an online survey to get an idea of the actual scenario
across Australia. The survey lead to quite a few detailed answers which were searched for.
The results showed that about 387 individuals who were on temprorary visas and facing
violence were able to use the services available in Australia; about 24% of these women were
availing the crisis housing and 11% were availing temporary housing. It also showed that
there was still one in ten women who were not availing any support services and staying with
their partners and thus were living at greater risks of facing further abuse. The most common
and most wanted support that the victims asked for are more long term accomodations for
leading a proper life and financial support. This report concluded by providing few
recommendations on the programs that can be implemented for increasing the safety and
security of women and children on temporary visas like provision of social accommodation,
give them access to Medicare policies and designing government policies to support those