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Parents can help prevent violence against women by promoting gender equality

30/7/2018

 
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Rigid gender roles and stereotyped constructions of masculinity and femininity are key drivers of violence against women.
And a large body of academic research shows traditional attitudes towards gender are one of the strongest predictors of attitudes that support this violence.
Australia's world-first national framework to prevent violence against women identifies challenging rigid gender roles and stereotypes as a key action in preventing such action in the first place.
To create lasting change, prevention needs to encompass multiple strategies across a range of places in our community. One key strategy is to begin early in the home.
This is an article worth reading with lots of practical tips. Read it here.

Embassy Real Estate will next month launch a nation-wide program called DV Aware for real estate professionals

30/7/2018

 
Realising that real estate agents are in a unique position to see the "warning signs" of domestic violence, Stephanie Dunn's company Embassy Real Estate will next month launch a nation-wide program called DV Aware for real estate professionals.


​Read the full story here

Brisbane man who threatened to strap bombs to their children is on the run

30/7/2018

 
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Convicted of domestic violence, having threatened to kill his former partner and to strap bombs to their two children failed to appear in court to face another charge of breaching a domestic violence order. Since the man's passport has not been flagged, he may come and go from Australia freely without facing arrest unless an alert is placed on his passport if Queensland police deem he is a threat and notify authorities in Canberra to arrest him if he returns. This has not yet happened.

Read the full story here.

City of Glen Eira launches its Family Violence Action Plan 2018-19 and gives impact a good rap

26/7/2018

 
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Download the policy here
Watch the relevant portion of the Council Meeting here starting at 1:54:45 where each and every Councillor spoke emotionally. Thank you City of Glen Eira.

The greatest myth of family violence

25/7/2018

 
We’ve been talking about family violence for a long time now but there are still some myths that just won’t go away. The most pernicious myth is that family violence is only physical violence and only men who are irredeemable and unlovable would do it.


​read the full story here

'Serious' risks of domestic violence in new online health system according to some women's agencies

25/7/2018

 
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Talking points
  • Women's agencies have questioned safety aspects of the new online health service for women experiencing domestic violence.
  • The new online health service called My Health Record includes the medical records that are uploaded by a person's doctor.
  • Queeensland's Women's Legal Service and the Brisbane Domestic Violence Service have questioned the security of the medical records for women struggling to free themselves from domestic violence.
  • Anyone with safety concens for a child or an adult can call the online health service on 1800 723 471.



Read the full article here

UN delivers strong rebuke to Australian government on women’s rights especially noting the endemic nature of violence against women

24/7/2018

 
The UN delivered a scathing critique of Australia’s failures to protect and promote the rights of women and girls. While the committee noted areas of improvement including marriage equality, the introduction of the paid parental leave scheme and the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, it also issued over 90 recommendations for improvement, demonstrating that negative aspects far outweigh progress on women’s rights.

Read the full story here.



Call for Participation in White Paper re Reproductive Coercion

24/7/2018

 
Reproductive coercion is yet another form of relationship abuse.
Just as universal access to health services is a vital part of ensuring good sexual and reproductive health outcomes, so too is the need for people to be able to exercise their reproductive autonomy.
Over the coming months, Marie Stopes Australia will seek further input into the draft White Paper with a view to releasing the final version in late October 2018. The second stage of consultation will conclude on 17 August 2018.

Read the full article here
​Download the draft white paper here


Why don’t we consider violence against women and girls terrorism?

24/7/2018

 
From female genital mutilation to domestic violence to femicide, women and girls around the world are living in fear. 
The etymology of the word terrorism comes from the Latin 
terror, meaning, “fright, fear, terror,” and from terrēre, “to frighten, terrify.”
According to the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), 
171 people died from terrorist attacks in 2015. By comparison, in just 20 European countries mapped by Eurostat in 2015, 1014 females died from femicide — almost six times as many.
No matter where in the world we live, women are afraid of men — whether those men are strangers on the street or on public transit, fathers or husbands, or other authority figures who use their power to exploit. As long as men’s violence is institutionalized, normalized, and internalized, women will not be able to escape it or hold men accountable. This pandemic violation of human rights is not just violence against women and girls, but terrorism against women and girls. Perhaps if we started referring to it as such, worldwide governments will finally understand this as a serious threat and take action.


​Read the full story here

Remote Controlled: Domestic Abuse Through Technology

23/7/2018

 
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Welcome to the new age of technological abuse. Abusers now routinely control objects remotely in the home through their smartphone apps, to listen, watch, scare, intimidate, and confuse victims. 


​Read the full story here.

Whether you are male or female, whether you are or are not abused, do a technology checkup here.

Abuse of the disabled: by the perpetrator AND by the authorities

22/7/2018

 
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When Nicole Lee's husband was removed from her home after she disclosed a decade of abuse to hospital staff following a suicide attempt, it took her eight weeks to get a shower.
"I had a 10-year, very violent relationship with my ex-husband who was also my disability carer," Ms Lee said.
"That day when the police decided to put an intervention order on him and remove him from the house, I was sent home on my own without anyone considering how I was going to cope... I didn't have a shower for 8 weeks until someone finally came to help me."


​Read the full story here.

What is parricide? How common is it in Australia?

20/7/2018

 
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Parricide is the killing of a parent by their child. And it happens more frequently than we'd like to think. There is high public interest in parricide cases – not only do such incidents include homicide, but they are disturbing as they challenge assumptions about the family as a safe space, and upset conventional ideas about the sanctity and intimacy of the child-parent relationship.


Read the full story here.

We are not at risk of terrorism, we are at risk of each other

17/7/2018

 
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“We are not at risk of terrorism, we are at risk of each other”, Katherine Benson of the Red Heart Campaign concludes. “Growing up in the ’80s I was taught about stranger danger. Nobody taught me to be cautious of the people that I loved.”
At the time of writing, here’s the 2018 homicide stats broken down by Red Heart.
• 38 women have been killed this year. 34 of these deaths were allegedly at the hands of men.
​• Three of the dead women were allegedly killed by another woman. One situation remains unknown.
• Out of these 38 deaths, 28 women allegedly lost their lives in family violence. And out of these 28, at least 23 of them are believed to have died at the hands of a man.
• 69 men have been murdered so far in 2018. It is alleged most of these deaths were caused by another man.
• Of those 69 men who have died, 11 of those are allegedly the result of family violence. It is alleged that out of those 10 deaths, five men were killed by another male, and six were killed by a female.


​Read the full article here.


One woman's story: ‘He was ready to decapitate me’

17/7/2018

 
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Samantha (not her real name) is educated. All she ever wanted was a stable and healthy relationship. Speaking from a refuge where she has been living with her newborn fourth child she recalls her story.
Forced to kneel on the verandah by her machete-wielding partner, she kept thinking ‘Just get out and survive’. His sister started to call the police and he turned around to say ‘What are you doing?’
“I ran as fast as I could – and felt like spewing the whole way –  to where my baby was, grabbed them and ran through the bush.”
​Read the full story here.

How did speaking up for women become slandering of men?

14/7/2018

 
But one caller to ABC Radio Melbourne has done an amazing job of uniting a huge number of women and men, who agreed her poem about society's response to violence against women summed up their own feelings.
Carmel is a psychologist who works in the domestic violence field. She said she was fascinated by how "good, decent men often jump in to defend men, rather than listen to what women are saying".
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The text line quickly lit up.


​Read the full story and here the poem here

New 'revolutionary' programs give hope to LGBT domestic violence survivors

14/7/2018

 
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But according to experts and survivors, this has created a false assumption that LGBT people are immune to intimate partner abuse. There is a lack of consensus and data on prevalence: many studies indicate rates are on par with the mainstream community — about a third of LGBT couples — however some evidence suggests this might be higher.Until now, LGBT people who are in a relationship where both they and their partner are abusive have largely remained traumatised and untreated as mainstream domestic violence services traditionally label people either perpetrator or victim, or don't recognise the abuse at all.
This has meant victims who have also been perpetrators have been shut out of victim assistance programs or treatment.
But a new trial intervention program for women and gender-diverse perpetrators of family violence who have been convicted of crimes will tackle this problem head-on.
"Very few services recognise the complexity of their offending, [and] the complexity of their life story," Ms Field said of the up to 30 perpetrators who are taking part in the trial, which was launched this month by Drummond Street Services.
The trial, which will also include up to 60 victims, will look at each perpetrator's case individually, rather than slotting each person into the 'victim' or 'perpetrator' template, and will aim to address underlying trauma, if it is the source of abuse.
Complementing this is a new two-year project training mainstream domestic violence services across Victoria to be more LGBT-inclusive and become "rainbow tick certified".
The project, run by Drummond Street Services and La Trobe University's GLHV centre, aims to teach counsellors that although the nature of domestic abuse in LGBT relationships is generally similar to straight relationships — in that abusers typically attempt to control partners through financial, emotional and physical abuse — many of the specific tactics they use are different.



​Read the full article here



‘If England gets beaten, so will she’: Shocking campaign shows domestic violence incidents spike during World Cup

11/7/2018

 
Millions of excited British football fans are gearing up for the World Cup semi final while thousands of women and children in abusive households are preparing for the worst. Domestic violence incidents increase during major sporting events like the World Cup and British emergency services expect abuse to spike following Thursday’s game, especially if England loses.A shocking new photo campaign from the UK’s National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) has launched ahead of the match, with the tagline, “If England gets beaten, so will she.”


impact has decided not to repost the image but to view it or to read the entire article, please click here.

It's imperative that ACCURATE and NOT fake news is disseminated

11/7/2018

 
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This image posted on Social Media provides FALSE information and that is NOT good enough!

The serious and widespread nature of intimate partner, domestic and family violence within our community places significant pressure on services responding to it. Families seeking assistance require quality services from appropriately skilled workers regardless of their cultural identity, sexuality, gender, socio-economic status or location.
Families seeking support have the right to receive equitable, inclusive, safe service provision and access to ACCURATE information to better inform their decision making; to have their individual experiences, beliefs and choices respected.


​read the full story here

UN GRILLS AUSTRALIA ON MULTIPLE FAILURES TO PROTECT WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE

9/7/2018

 
As a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Australian government is expected to present to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination every four years but the last time they presented was in 2010.
Given Australia’s global economic standing, the Committee was extremely concerned by cuts to women’s shelter services and the housing, financial and legal services upon which the most vulnerable women rely. The Committee criticised Australia for cutting specialised services designed to help women escape violence in the home and replacing them with mainstreamed services. The Committee considered it unreasonable to expect a woman who has been the victim of male violence to seek refuge at a shelter that now also serves men.

​Read the full story here.


Study reveals that nearly half of female healthcare workers have experienced domestic abuse

4/7/2018

 
A landmark investigation published in the BMC Women's Health journal involved 471 female doctors, nurses and health professionals in Victoria found that nearly half have experienced domestic violence with one in 10 having been abused by their partner in the past year alone.
​Read the full story here.

Working together to keep our children safe

3/7/2018

 
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On a cold June evening at the Caulfield Pavilion, a remarkable event took place. A crowd of over 50 people came together for a joint event hosted by impacttogether with Tzedek, a Jewish organisation focussed on the prevention and abolition of child sexual abuse. Each person there heard stories and accounts that are rarely, if ever, told and discussed in such detail and with such candour.
 
Titled ‘Working Together to Keep our Children Safe’, the panel consisted of Rae le Fleur, an abuse survivor and advocate, Inspector Bernie Edwards from the Victoria Police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team, and The Hon Ted Baillieu, former Victorian Premier, together with Dr Micelle Meyer, CEO of Tzedek, and Kathy Kaplan OAM, founder of impact. The moderator for the event was Adam Slonim, who began by asking Michelle, Kathy and Bernie about the indicators and warning signs of abuse and violence in both adults and kids. All three talked about the physical, psychological and potentially unseen indicators, and talked about the authenticity, integrity and believability of the victims. Many of these indicators are well known and were known to many in the audience.
 
What was unknown, and what became the first remarkable story of the night, was that of Rae le Fleur. When the moderator turned to her, she seemed a little hesitant, started off speaking rather quietly, and apologised for reading from her notes. But when she began in earnest, no-one even noticed that she was reading because the audience were hanging on every word. In fact, the entire room was silent and amazed by what they were hearing. Not one person was on their phone or even whispering to their neighbour. Rae’s story of her abuse at the hands of trusted family friends and their kids when she was 6, 7 and 8, was as captivating as it was horrific. She explained the abuse in some detail, and the side effects that came with it, including bullying, mental distress and long-term anxiety. Having just heard about some of the indicators, she also chillingly said that all the indicators were there, but none of the supposedly trusted adults noticed them or believed her. 
 
Later, when asked when and how she started to talk about her abuse, she said that for many years she suppressed that side of her life. Even her husband had no inkling. And it was only when her first child was a toddler that the memories came flooding back. Eventually her husband noticed that she was acting a little oddly, and when he asked her about it, she barely managed to whisper to him some of the details. But over time she found the strength to speak up and eventually met with Michelle Meyer from Tzedek and told her story in full. She has now become an advocate for other victims, but when she first told her Holocaust-surviving grandmother, the response shocked her and everyone in the audience as well. Her grandmother had said, ‘don’t worry, worse things have happened’.  Rae’s message was that finding the right people to speak to is critical, and members of one’s family may often not be the right people.
 
After then hearing from some of the panel members about the difference between being a bystander and an upstander – that an upstander is someone who does something – the former Premier was asked why and how he became an upstander in this field. He too told a remarkable story that began with his time in government. As Premier, he said, he had the chance to meet many people and many communities. And through a series of circuitous circumstances, after already becoming an advocate for a number of causes with various community groups, he had agreed to attend an event at Yeshiva in Melbourne, which turned out to be after his reign in the top job. To his credit, he turned up anyway, and it was there that he met Dassi Erlich, one of the leading voices in the campaign to bring Malka Leifer back to Australia. Malka of course was the notorious former Principal of Adass Girls School, who had abused Dassi and her sisters, and is now holed up in an Israeli jail but wanted on 74 child molestation counts in Melbourne. Mr Baillieu said that one of the greatest lessons he learned as a leader is that it is a very powerful thing for leaders to stand up for victims. And once he met Dassi, he realised that he was in a very powerful position to be a strong advocate on her behalf. He even joked that when it comes to Dassi, his real task is to do whatever it is that she asks of him. 
 
As we later heard, Mr Baillieu gives Dassi advice on a wide range of matters related to the case, and raises the issue whenever and wherever he can. As such, he accompanied Dassi to a meeting with the Prime Minister and ensured that the Prime Minister raised the issue with Bibi Netanyahu on two occasions. Though the case is yet to be resolved in the way that Dassi and her supporters hope it will be, the fact that Malka is in jail and that a trial date for her extradition has been set, are victories that Dassi and her team can be duly proud of.
 
Whilst the rest of the panel discussion focussed on what Mr Baillieu called ‘moving the line of normality’, meaning changing the views within certain minority communities of what is acceptable behaviour and what is not, the evening finished with yet another remarkable moment. Though not part of the panel, Dassi Erlich was in the audience and after some more wise words from each of the panel members about re-setting the line, making it easier to go to the police and changes that the Jewish community has and can continue to make, Dassi got up and presented Mr Baillieu, or simply Ted as she calls him, with a gift. She also spoke of the great bond that the two of them had established, and how much he has really helped her. She confessed that she knew almost nothing about navigating the political quagmire when she started this campaign, and barely knew who all the politicians were. Ted helped her, and was of particular assistance when she asked to bring a companion along to an Adass board meeting, and turned up with the former Premier. Ted spoke as glowingly of her as she did of him. It was clear that their bond is now mutual and genuine, but both of them also said that they will not stop until Malka is back in Australia facing a trial, and until this issue of child abuse in the Jewish community and in the broader community is eliminated or curtailed as much as possible.
 
Kathy and Michelle, from impact and Tzedek respectively, concluded the night by showing a video and by talking about the practical manner in which both their organisations can assist victims, survivors and those who have questions about indicators and misgivings. Speaking to Tzedek was one of the greatest moments of Rae’s life because she was finally able to open up to a person and to an organisation that listened and took her seriously. That is also what Dassi said about Ted and others who have become her advocates, because each survivor has a remarkable story, but one that we hear all too often. The bravery of Rae and Dassi, the advocacy work of Ted and the importance of the work of the Victoria Police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team were all on show, but one hopes that one day, these will simply be remarkable, historical and almost unbelievable stories rather than current and active cases. 
 

This article was written by Alex Kats, impact Board Member

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