SASVic acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional and ongoing Custodians of the lands on which we live and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded and recognise First Nations peoples' right to self-determination and continuing connection to land, waters, community and culture.
SASVic also acknowledges victim survivors of sexual violence who we work for every day. We acknowledge the pervasive nature of sexual violence, and the impact that it has on survivors and their communities. We celebrate the powerful advocacy of survivors that is changing systems and policy.
SASVic Member Update
Hi everyone,
I'm writing this from Brighton, in the UK. It's Day 3 of our study tour, with a delegation of 15 members and colleagues. Most of the group are SASVic members, but we're also joined by two colleagues from VACCA and academic AJ George. Right now, half of us are in Brighton, and the other half in Cardiff, Wales.
Today in Brighton, we met with the Survivors Network, the specialist sexual assault service here, who told us about their ISVAs and ChISVAs - Independent Sexual Violence Advisors and Children's Independent Sexual Violence Advisor. There are over 1,000 ISVAs in the UK, and they are part of the inspiration for the new Justice Navigator roles that will be trialled in Victoria. At the Survivors Network, as well as generalist ISVA roles, they (like other SV services across the UK) have what they call specialist ISVAs, with a focus on survivors less likely to report to the police, including in their case, people who have experienced racism (with the acronym PoWER), men, and people with multiple and complex needs. They also have an ISVA for survivors of sexual abuse in the Church of England. We're learning all we can, to inform the development of JNs.
Later in the day, we had a roundtable with a biggish group of service providers, government officials and police. We learned that in the UK, there's a process called a Victims Rights Review, where a survivor or an ISVA can ask police to review a decision in a rape and serious sexual offenses case, which the police are then required to do. It will be great to use this as an example in our advocacy at home.
There's been a huge project in the UK, called Operation Soteria, to improve the (abysmal) rates of reporting to police and convictions. Rather than problematising victims, the project looks at what police need to do differently, and it's leading to significant improvements in police responses to survivors. The Op Soteria framework pushes police to stop trying to second guess what the prosecution or a jury might decide, and instead focus on being 'victim-centred, suspect-focused, context-focused'. Some of the very impressive academics working on this briefed us on the project, specialist services here are really optimistic about it, and, interestingly, the police inspector we met today was similarly a big advocate for it. We're thinking about what we might be able to learn from the program for Victoria.
We're also learning about the wide range of groups English specialist SV services run - it's a much bigger part of what they do than at home.
It's not all roses though - the funding for specialist services, and even police, is much less secure than our funding, and their justice system is in a very bad state, with a shortage of barristers and judges creating significant delays for survivors.
Those of us fortunate enough to be on the tour are looking forward to sharing what we've learned when we're back.
Warmly,
Kathleen
CEO
SASVic
Phase Two of the Working Together: Strengthening Family and Sexual Violence Support with Multicultural Communities program will open in October.
Grants will be offered over two years to partnership projects focused on supporting system integration between multicultural organisations and specialist family and sexual violence services, to reduce barriers and improve responses to victim survivors from multicultural communities.
Applications will be invited from partnerships of at least one multicultural community organisations and one specialist family and/or sexual violence services.
There will be two streams:
- Stream 1: focused on service system integration with multicultural community organisations and specialist family violence services
- Stream 2: focused on service system integration with multicultural community organisations and specialist sexual violence services, including raising awareness of sexual violence service support in communities.
You may apply for one or both streams. Projects that have been extended from Phase 1 of the grants program can only apply for the new Stream Two (sexual violence).
We will send around the grant guidelines, application form and details about the October information session, when it becomes available.
Victoria's new non-fatal strangulation laws start from 13 October. Here's what you need to know:
The new stand-alone offences only apply to family violence, but SASVic has been advocating and will continue to advocate for them to apply to sexual activity outside of 'family' relationships.
There are two separate offences - one with a maximum sentence of five years, and another with a maximum sentence of ten years.
For the five-year offence, there is no need to prove injury and an affirmative consent defence is available when the strangulation occurs during sex. General defences like self-defence are also available.
For the ten-year offence, you need proof of injury and proof of intention to cause injury. There's no consent defence, and the exemptions are medical conduct and "bodily adornment in good faith."
The Victorian Government wanted to limit the laws to family violence to avoid inappropriate criminalisation (e.g. if non-fatal strangulation happens in martial arts, massage or sport) and over-criminalisation (e.g. people being caught by NFS laws when resisting arrest). They also said assault charges are available for NFS outside of family violence.
The laws are going to be reviewed after they've been operating after two years. In that time, SASVic will be advocating for the laws to be amended so they also cover non-fatal strangulation that happens during stranger/ date rape, in casual sexual relationships, during sex work and during otherwise consensual sex. We also want to signal to the community that non-fatal strangulation is dangerous.
In some states and territories, including New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, non-fatal strangulation is a crime regardless of family relationship. Victoria joins Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory in limiting the offence to the family violence context.
We finally have an update on Justice Navigators to share with you.
SASVic is working with Family Safety Victoria on designing the program. We can confirm that the pilot will happen across two locations, with two Justice Navigators at each location.
The government says that it will consider demand modelling when choosing priority locations.
EOIs for participating in the pilot will open in January and funding will be allocated to services in February.
It hasn't been determined if the justice navigators will be for adults, children, or both.
Justice Navigators is part of a wider women's safety package comprising 16 initiatives which the government says will "change laws, change culture and deliver additional supports for victim survivors."
These include expanding respectful relationships education, some funding boosts for case management, a perpetrator study, the Ballarat Saturation Model and more.
On October 22, come to the online Family Violence and Sexual Violence pre-Symposium Session – Launching the FVSV Knowledge Hub!
(A cross-peak partnership between Safe and Equal, No to Violence, Sexual Assault Services Victoria and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.)
We’re proud to announce the launch of the Family Violence Sexual Violence Knowledge Hub during a special online pre-Symposium Session on October 22nd! In addition the launch of the knowledge hub, this session will spotlight cutting-edge research and practice-based insights from experts in the family violence and sexual violence sectors, featuring presentations from family and sexual violence organisations our partners. SASVic will be presenting our REACH findings.
Date: Tuesday 22 October
Time: 9.30am to 12.30pm
Location: Zoom (link to be provided)
The OPEN symposium is an annual event and has become a pivotal gathering for professionals across the children and family services sector, aiming to drive meaningful change through the exchange of innovative ideas and evidence-based practices.
The OPEN Symposium includes three days of online presentations on out-of-home care, parenting, building the Aboriginal evidence base, youth justice prevention, and much more. All are welcome.
Date: Wednesday 23 October - Friday 25 October
Time: All day
Location: Online
Join Dr Teresa Noakes for this 2-part online advanced training utilising Deb Dana’s Rhythm of Regulation methodology, introduction Personal Connection Plan and Continuums. This is a small group professional development opportunity aimed a tworkers who have previously attended the introductory workshops on ‘Polyvagal Theory and Personal Profile Mapping’.
Click the button below to register your interest by Friday 18 October. Please note that the delivery of this training is dependent on sufficient registration numbers. We might have to cancel if not enough people register.
Date: Thursday 14 & Thursday 21 November
Time: 12pm – 2.30pm
Location: ONLINE (Zoom)
A new national commission will be tasked with protecting and promoting the rights, interests and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.
Intended as an important part of the government's Closing the Gap strategy, the new commissioner will focus on the over representation of Indigenous children in out-of-home care and detention.
Applications for the commissioner role will open later this month and the commission will start operating on the 13th of January 2025.
Victoria already has a Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People (Meena Singh), but not every state does.
Women in the Australian Defence Force were "in constant danger of sexual assault from their peers and superiors," according to the first independent study of military institutional abuse in Australia. The harrowing findings by Ben Wadham and James Connor are documented in a new book, Warrior, Soldier, Brigand.
The two scholars reveal more than a century of cover-ups and minimisation of widespread institutional abuse, criticising the inadequacy of ADF's surface-level efforts at cultural change and redress.
The book's publication comes after the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide's final report highlighted the devastating effects of sexual violence in the military. Close to 800 sexual assaults were reported in the ADF over the past five years and Defence itself estimates that 60 per cent of sexual assaults are not reported.
Next week is anti-poverty week. We know there are links between sexual and family violence and financial hardship:
- women are 30 per cent to 45 per cent more likely to experience high financial stress if they've experienced sexual violence
- women who leave violent relationships suffer a drop in income of as much as 45 per cent
- having no money or financial support is one of the top reasons why women go back to a violent partner.
Gender inequality also manifests financially:
- on average, women earn $2 million less than men over their lives
- while 80 per cent of all Australian single parent families are female, more than 95 per cent of the poorest single-parent families, those who rely on Parenting Payment Single, are headed by women.
For more than 20 years, anti-poverty week has operated in Australia around the 17th of October, the UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Its purpose is to help Australians understand poverty and take action collectively to end it.
Learn more about anti-poverty week and poverty in Australia by clicking the link below.
Women's Health East and Youth Disability Advocacy Service are launching a new collection of resources about affirmative consent, sexual and reproductive rights, and prevention of gendered violence for young adults with disability.
Get the Go-Ahead will be officially launched at an event on Monday 28 October.
Women's Health East is also offering free presentations in which they'll showcase the resources, talk to staff about how to use them and share a bit about how they were created.
Presentations can be in-person or online, depending on what suits your organisation. They can be 20 minutes to fit into an existing meeting, or a dedicated hour workshop.
Please email Kochava, klilit@whe.org.au, if you have any questions or would like to book a presentation.
Gippsland CASA is running a new program to help people with cognitive disability learn about consent, respectful relationships and being safe. Delivered by a team of peer educators, the program includes educational resources, opportunities for social connection, group education sessions and professional development for support workers and those who work with people with disability.
GCASA is working with New Wave Gippsland, Gippsland Disability Advocacy and the Federation University Collaborative Evaluation Research Centre on the program.
The latest episode of the Sexual Violence Research Podcast features Maree Crabbe, co-founder of It's Time We Talked, and Jennifer Johnson, Professor of Sociology at Virginia Tech. Maree and Jennifer explore how pornography is influencing young peoples' sex lives, including rising rates of sexual violence, as well as ostensibly consensual sexual experiences that may be painful and uncomfortable.
The Sexual Violence Research Podcast is produced by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI). It addresses gender-based violence from the perspective of different disciplines and cultures and hears from expert guests as they discover and share how to create a violence free world.
"March Forward" will be the theme for 2025's International Women's Day, commemorating 30 years since the United Nation's Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on gender equality.
Originating in the labour movement, IWD takes place every March 8.
Federal Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, said “the theme ‘March Forward’ reminds us that progress is not just about reflection but about taking decisive, bold steps to turn our commitments into action. This is our moment to drive change and ensure a truly equal future for all women and girls.”
"March Forward" is the theme set by the UN. Be careful not to confuse it with "accelerate action," the theme on internationalwomensday.com, an unofficial website run by a marketing firm that ranks highly on Google search results.
Researchers from La Trobe university are asking for input from our sector to help identify the most effective ways of raising community awareness of child sexual abuse. They want to learn from advocates who have been working to improve child safety, secure justice for victim-survivors, and/or change public discourse about child sexual abuse.
This research being conducted by Associate Professor Katie Wright and has been designed for advocates, community campaigners and activists who have regularly engaged in public and private conversations about child sexual abuse as part of their advocacy work.
The survey takes about 40-60 minutes to complete and there is an option to save your responses and come back later.
In NSW, the media has been talking about a behaviour crisis in schools.
New crime statistics show 799 sexual offences were recorded on NSW school premises in the year to June 2024. There were also 2300 recorded assaults - an 80% rise in a decade - and 1247 reports of stalking, harassment and intimidation.
The spike in incidents is most notable after the pandemic.
The NSW Department of Education said mandatory reporting of sexual incidents to police and better consent education (empowering more survivors to speak up) could go some of the way towards explaining why the numbers had risen so dramatically.
This crisis occurs in the context of concerns about the negative influence of "manfluencers" on school-aged boys and calls to ban kids from social media.
Family and sexual violence thrive in relationships with unequal power dynamics. And in a forced marriage, these dynamics are even more intense.
SASVic welcomed the opportunity to provide a submission to the Australian Government's consultation on enhancing civil protections and remedies for forced marriage. In our submission, we highlighted that sexual violence, including reproductive coercion, can be a precursor to and a consequence of forced marriage. We said sexual assault services must be included when considering ways to improve recognition of and response to forced marriage, including by training frontline workers to recognise the signs.
We also referred to the submissions from Women’s Legal Service Victoria and InTouch regarding civil protections and remedies, and particularly their calls to prioritise investing in practical supports for victim survivors of forced marriage.
Research shows dating app users experience alarming rates of sexual violence.
Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble will be subject to greater accountability on user safety under a new voluntary code, which is now in effect. Signatories of the code, which won't be enforceable until April next year, have agreed to:
- implement systems to detect potential incidents of online-enabled harm
- display prominent reporting information
- take action against users who have broken safety policies, including by banning them from all apps owned by the company
- engage with law enforcement
- publish reports on how many Australian users have been banned (accounts terminated).
There will also be a rating system so users can see how each app is performing.
In April next year, the code will be enforced by a code compliance body. Though the members haven't been appointed yet, they are set to include a lawyer and two subject matter experts (one on social media, the other on public policy, online safety or gender-based violence).
The government media release said that compliance actions could include "issuing formal warnings, ordering a participant develop a plan to meet its commitments, suspension or formal removal from the Code, which would prohibit the use of any accreditation or reference to compliance with the Code."
The code comes in response to 2022 research showing three in four survey respondents had experienced sexual violence facilitated by a dating app in the previous five years. After a national roundtable on online dating safety in early 2023, the Australian Government threatened regulation if the apps didn't agree to a voluntary code by mid 2024.
Second round applications for the community and social services graduate program are now open!
The graduate program is funded by DFFH and goes for 12 months.
As an employer, you can participate in two ways:
1. Submit a job vacancy and hire a new graduate from the applicant pool.
2. Nominate an existing employee who meets the eligibility criteria. If you nominate an existing employee, they have to have been hired within the past year.
Applications close on 25 October.
Head to the Victorian Government website to register as an employer.
Contents
Featured
Justice Navigators Update
We finally have an update on Justice Navigators to share with you.
SASVic is working with Family Safety Victoria on designing the program. We can confirm that the pilot will happen across two locations, with two Justice Navigators at each location.
The government says that it will consider demand modelling when choosing priority locations.
EOIs for participating in the pilot will open in January and funding will be allocated to services in February.
It hasn't been determined if the justice navigators will be for adults, children, or both.
Justice Navigators is part of a wider women's safety package comprising 16 initiatives which the government says will "change laws, change culture and deliver additional supports for victim survivors."
These include expanding respectful relationships education, some funding boosts for case management, a perpetrator study, the Ballarat Saturation Model and more.
Non-fatal strangulation is a crime in Victoria from next week - in certain circumstances
Victoria's new non-fatal strangulation laws start from 13 October. Here's what you need to know:
The new stand-alone offences only apply to family violence, but SASVic has been advocating and will continue to advocate for them to apply to sexual activity outside of 'family' relationships.
There are two separate offences - one with a maximum sentence of five years, and another with a maximum sentence of ten years.
For the five-year offence, there is no need to prove injury and an affirmative consent defence is available when the strangulation occurs during sex. General defences like self-defence are also available.
For the ten-year offence, you need proof of injury and proof of intention to cause injury. There's no consent defence, and the exemptions are medical conduct and "bodily adornment in good faith."
The Victorian Government wanted to limit the laws to family violence to avoid inappropriate criminalisation (e.g. if non-fatal strangulation happens in martial arts, massage or sport) and over-criminalisation (e.g. people being caught by NFS laws when resisting arrest). They also said assault charges are available for NFS outside of family violence.
The laws are going to be reviewed after they've been operating after two years. In that time, SASVic will be advocating for the laws to be amended so they also cover non-fatal strangulation that happens during stranger/ date rape, in casual sexual relationships, during sex work and during otherwise consensual sex. We also want to signal to the community that non-fatal strangulation is dangerous.
In some states and territories, including New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, non-fatal strangulation is a crime regardless of family relationship. Victoria joins Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory in limiting the offence to the family violence context.
Service Design & Improvement
Please send any questions you have about our work in this area to maria.papadontas@sasvic.org.au
"Nothing about us, without us": New Peer Relationships Education Partners (PREP) Program for people with cognitive disability
Gippsland CASA is running a new program to help people with cognitive disability learn about consent, respectful relationships and being safe. Delivered by a team of peer educators, the program includes educational resources, opportunities for social connection, group education sessions and professional development for support workers and those who work with people with disability.
GCASA is working with New Wave Gippsland, Gippsland Disability Advocacy and the Federation University Collaborative Evaluation Research Centre on the program.
Get the Go-Ahead: free presentations on offer to learn about this new resource for young adults with disability
Women's Health East and Youth Disability Advocacy Service are launching a new collection of resources about affirmative consent, sexual and reproductive rights, and prevention of gendered violence for young adults with disability.
Get the Go-Ahead will be officially launched at an event on Monday 28 October.
Women's Health East is also offering free presentations in which they'll showcase the resources, talk to staff about how to use them and share a bit about how they were created.
Presentations can be in-person or online, depending on what suits your organisation. They can be 20 minutes to fit into an existing meeting, or a dedicated hour workshop.
Please email Kochava, klilit@whe.org.au, if you have any questions or would like to book a presentation.
Upcoming grant round for Working Together: Strengthening Family and Sexual Violence Support with Multicultural Communities
Phase Two of the Working Together: Strengthening Family and Sexual Violence Support with Multicultural Communities program will open in October.
Grants will be offered over two years to partnership projects focused on supporting system integration between multicultural organisations and specialist family and sexual violence services, to reduce barriers and improve responses to victim survivors from multicultural communities.
Applications will be invited from partnerships of at least one multicultural community organisations and one specialist family and/or sexual violence services.
There will be two streams:
- Stream 1: focused on service system integration with multicultural community organisations and specialist family violence services
- Stream 2: focused on service system integration with multicultural community organisations and specialist sexual violence services, including raising awareness of sexual violence service support in communities.
You may apply for one or both streams. Projects that have been extended from Phase 1 of the grants program can only apply for the new Stream Two (sexual violence).
We will send around the grant guidelines, application form and details about the October information session, when it becomes available.
Advocacy & evidence
Please send any questions you have about our work in this area to amy.webster@sasvic.org.au
New dating app code now in effect
Research shows dating app users experience alarming rates of sexual violence.
Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble will be subject to greater accountability on user safety under a new voluntary code, which is now in effect. Signatories of the code, which won't be enforceable until April next year, have agreed to:
- implement systems to detect potential incidents of online-enabled harm
- display prominent reporting information
- take action against users who have broken safety policies, including by banning them from all apps owned by the company
- engage with law enforcement
- publish reports on how many Australian users have been banned (accounts terminated).
There will also be a rating system so users can see how each app is performing.
In April next year, the code will be enforced by a code compliance body. Though the members haven't been appointed yet, they are set to include a lawyer and two subject matter experts (one on social media, the other on public policy, online safety or gender-based violence).
The government media release said that compliance actions could include "issuing formal warnings, ordering a participant develop a plan to meet its commitments, suspension or formal removal from the Code, which would prohibit the use of any accreditation or reference to compliance with the Code."
The code comes in response to 2022 research showing three in four survey respondents had experienced sexual violence facilitated by a dating app in the previous five years. After a national roundtable on online dating safety in early 2023, the Australian Government threatened regulation if the apps didn't agree to a voluntary code by mid 2024.
Survey: raising community awareness of child sexual abuse
Researchers from La Trobe university are asking for input from our sector to help identify the most effective ways of raising community awareness of child sexual abuse. They want to learn from advocates who have been working to improve child safety, secure justice for victim-survivors, and/or change public discourse about child sexual abuse.
This research being conducted by Associate Professor Katie Wright and has been designed for advocates, community campaigners and activists who have regularly engaged in public and private conversations about child sexual abuse as part of their advocacy work.
The survey takes about 40-60 minutes to complete and there is an option to save your responses and come back later.
New book reveals more than a century of military institutional abuse
Women in the Australian Defence Force were "in constant danger of sexual assault from their peers and superiors," according to the first independent study of military institutional abuse in Australia. The harrowing findings by Ben Wadham and James Connor are documented in a new book, Warrior, Soldier, Brigand.
The two scholars reveal more than a century of cover-ups and minimisation of widespread institutional abuse, criticising the inadequacy of ADF's surface-level efforts at cultural change and redress.
The book's publication comes after the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide's final report highlighted the devastating effects of sexual violence in the military. Close to 800 sexual assaults were reported in the ADF over the past five years and Defence itself estimates that 60 per cent of sexual assaults are not reported.
Podcast: how online pornography is fuelling sexual violence among young people
The latest episode of the Sexual Violence Research Podcast features Maree Crabbe, co-founder of It's Time We Talked, and Jennifer Johnson, Professor of Sociology at Virginia Tech. Maree and Jennifer explore how pornography is influencing young peoples' sex lives, including rising rates of sexual violence, as well as ostensibly consensual sexual experiences that may be painful and uncomfortable.
The Sexual Violence Research Podcast is produced by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI). It addresses gender-based violence from the perspective of different disciplines and cultures and hears from expert guests as they discover and share how to create a violence free world.
OPEN symposium and pre-symposium knowledge hub launch
On October 22, come to the online Family Violence and Sexual Violence pre-Symposium Session – Launching the FVSV Knowledge Hub!
(A cross-peak partnership between Safe and Equal, No to Violence, Sexual Assault Services Victoria and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.)
We’re proud to announce the launch of the Family Violence Sexual Violence Knowledge Hub during a special online pre-Symposium Session on October 22nd! In addition the launch of the knowledge hub, this session will spotlight cutting-edge research and practice-based insights from experts in the family violence and sexual violence sectors, featuring presentations from family and sexual violence organisations our partners. SASVic will be presenting our REACH findings.
Date: Tuesday 22 October
Time: 9.30am to 12.30pm
Location: Zoom (link to be provided)
The OPEN symposium is an annual event and has become a pivotal gathering for professionals across the children and family services sector, aiming to drive meaningful change through the exchange of innovative ideas and evidence-based practices.
The OPEN Symposium includes three days of online presentations on out-of-home care, parenting, building the Aboriginal evidence base, youth justice prevention, and much more. All are welcome.
Date: Wednesday 23 October - Friday 25 October
Time: All day
Location: Online
Prevention
Please send any questions you have about our work in this area to jaeme.opie@sasvic.org.au
Other news
Government announces new national commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people
A new national commission will be tasked with protecting and promoting the rights, interests and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.
Intended as an important part of the government's Closing the Gap strategy, the new commissioner will focus on the over representation of Indigenous children in out-of-home care and detention.
Applications for the commissioner role will open later this month and the commission will start operating on the 13th of January 2025.
Victoria already has a Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People (Meena Singh), but not every state does.
Anti-poverty week: there are links between sexual violence and financial hardship
Next week is anti-poverty week. We know there are links between sexual and family violence and financial hardship:
- women are 30 per cent to 45 per cent more likely to experience high financial stress if they've experienced sexual violence
- women who leave violent relationships suffer a drop in income of as much as 45 per cent
- having no money or financial support is one of the top reasons why women go back to a violent partner.
Gender inequality also manifests financially:
- on average, women earn $2 million less than men over their lives
- while 80 per cent of all Australian single parent families are female, more than 95 per cent of the poorest single-parent families, those who rely on Parenting Payment Single, are headed by women.
For more than 20 years, anti-poverty week has operated in Australia around the 17th of October, the UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Its purpose is to help Australians understand poverty and take action collectively to end it.
Learn more about anti-poverty week and poverty in Australia by clicking the link below.
2025 International Women's Day theme announced
"March Forward" will be the theme for 2025's International Women's Day, commemorating 30 years since the United Nation's Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on gender equality.
Originating in the labour movement, IWD takes place every March 8.
Federal Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, said “the theme ‘March Forward’ reminds us that progress is not just about reflection but about taking decisive, bold steps to turn our commitments into action. This is our moment to drive change and ensure a truly equal future for all women and girls.”
"March Forward" is the theme set by the UN. Be careful not to confuse it with "accelerate action," the theme on internationalwomensday.com, an unofficial website run by a marketing firm that ranks highly on Google search results.
NSW schools are experiencing a "behaviour crisis"
In NSW, the media has been talking about a behaviour crisis in schools.
New crime statistics show 799 sexual offences were recorded on NSW school premises in the year to June 2024. There were also 2300 recorded assaults - an 80% rise in a decade - and 1247 reports of stalking, harassment and intimidation.
The spike in incidents is most notable after the pandemic.
The NSW Department of Education said mandatory reporting of sexual incidents to police and better consent education (empowering more survivors to speak up) could go some of the way towards explaining why the numbers had risen so dramatically.
This crisis occurs in the context of concerns about the negative influence of "manfluencers" on school-aged boys and calls to ban kids from social media.
Follow SASVic for more updates.
Workforce training
Keep up to date with training and event opportunities for the sector by visiting the Workforce Training & Events page.
Bookings open now
If you are interested in registering for a training course, please speak with your manager. If you have any questions, please contact training@sasvic.org.au.
Working with Victim Survivors from a Migrant or Refugee Background
Join us on Tuesday 19 November from 10am to 1pm to improve your knowledge and skills for working with victim survivors from a refugee or migrant background. Hear speakers from InTouch, Multicultural Centre for Women's Health and WestCASA. Open to SASVic member services only. Free.
Introduction to the new Transfemme Practice Guide with Zoe Belle Gender Collective
Join SASVic, Starlady of Zoe Belle Gender Collective and CASA House on Tuesday 3 December, 9.45am to 11.15am, to learn more about 'Responding to the objectification, fetishisation and sexual exploitation of trans women and trans feminine people by cisgender men: A Transfemme Practice Guide'. Open to SASVic member services only. Free.
Webinars and events
Please check with your manager before registering, where appropriate.
Walk Against Family Violence
In Victoria, this event marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence – a global campaign for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.
Date: Friday 22 November
Time: 11am
Location: Birrarung Marr
Transfemme workshop
Zoe Belle Gender Collective is inviting practitioners who have existing experience or knowledge in working with trans and gender diverse people to learn and contribute practice wisdom.
Date: Friday, 22 November
Time: 9:30am - 12:30pm
Location: Thorne Harbour Health training rooms, 200 Hoddle St Abbotsford
Launch of new ANROWS report
ANROWS will be hosting a free online event to release a new research report, led by Professor Kerry Robinson, on sexual harassment of LGBTQ young people in the workplace.
Date: Tuesday 3 December
Time: (AEDT): 11.00am – 12.30pm
Location: Online via YouTube livestream
Margins to Mainstream launch
Join the online launch of Margins to Mainstream: Preventing violence against women with disabilities (M2M) and the Women's Health Service Network's (WHSN) bid for investment in the2025-26 Victorian state budget.
Date: Monday, 25 November
Time: 11:00 AM -12:00 PM
Location: Online
National Redress Scheme workshop
The National Redress Scheme supports survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. In this half-day workshop, eight Victorian redress support services are collaborating to provide you with detailed information about how to assist clients on their journey.
Date: Thursday, 5 December
Time: 1pm - 4:30pm
Location: Holiday Inn Dandenong
Changing the landscape webinar
Our Watch and Women with Disabilities Victoria will highlight new practice resources from Changing the landscape: A national resource to prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities in this webinar for prevention practitioners. The webinar will have an Auslan interpreter and captioning.
Date: Wednesday 11 December
Time: 1:00 - 2:30pm
Conferences
Sector calendar
Below are some of the meetings happening across the sector. Please contact the meeting chair to find out more, including how you can join networks or comittees related to your area of work and interests.
WD Standing Committee
The Workforce Development Standing Committee provides advice to SASVic and supports the ongoing implementation and development of education and training projects, including but not limited to the workforce development program.
Kayti Murphy
catherine.murphy@sasvic.org.au
Resources and links
SASVic and member details
SASVic organisational structure with staff names and positions
Specialist Sexual Assault Sector Map
Here is a map that helps people find their local specialist sexual assault service.
National Association of Services Against Sexual Violence
SASVic is a member of the National Association of Services Against Sexual Assault (NASASV).
Acronyms
Here is a list of acronyms. Please let us know if you've discovered any more we should add.