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,
This week we farewell Cara Hammond from Bass Coast Health and Helen Bolton from the SAFV Centre. Cara and Helen, thank you for everything you've done in your current roles and good luck in your new ones. The very good news is that neither Cara nor Helen going far, with Cara taking up a new role with GCASA and Helen starting as CEO at Respect Victoria.
In this update, Aisha Jakszewicz from CASA House and Kate Neocleous from GCASA, which have both recently expanded their group work offerings, talk about the programs they're offering and their tips for running successful groups. We're keen to share more about work members are doing in these updates, so if you've got something you think other people in the sector would like to know about, please contact us.
Speaking of group work, for the first time to my knowledge, we have a cross-sector online group for survivors starting. The group is for gay men anywhere in the state, and won't require participants to have gone through counselling first, so may be useful to gay men on your waiting lists, as well as men who having counselling. Please see the flyer below. Thank you to ECASA, SECASA and the SAFV Centre for collaborating with SASVic to make this possible. Hopefully, depending on the evaluation, it will be the beginning of more state-wide offerings like this.
We have a new workforce training coming up on the medical risks and impacts of non-fatal strangulation, with Dr Jo Ann Parkin from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. Details below.
If you haven't signed up to our AGM, the link is below. With the Commonwealth Attorney General speaking, we're keen to have a strong showing from the sector, to reinforce both how important our sector's work and the need for legal reform is.
There's lots more below, including a call out for people who have experienced sexual harassment to join VLA's Sexual Harassment Service Reference Group, research about sexual violence in the sex industry during the pandemic and our submission on non disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases. As always, let us know if there's other things you'd like us to include in this update.
Warmly,
Kathleen
CEO
SASVic
CASA House and Gippsland CASA have recently had the opportunity to expand their group work offerings. The SASVic comms team had a chat to Aisha Jakszewicz from CASA House and Kate Neocleous from GCASA to find out more.
CASA House has been running peer support groups for 35 years and this year received philanthropic funding allowing Aisha to dedicate her role to group work three days a week. This has allowed CASA House to create new groups, including an Aboriginal women survivor group in partnership with Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, which will start in October, and a sex and intimacy group, which will run next year.
Psychoeducation groups addressing topics like "what is trauma?" and "what is intersectional feminism?" are also in the works.
"The thing that people get out of [group work] is belonging. They get an understanding that's unmatchable, sitting in a group of people who really get what [they've] been through," said Aisha, who has been facilitating peer support groups since 2000.
"Through the group, they recognise that they aren't in as bad a spot as they thought. They're still a lovable, OK, acceptable person."
Aisha has also completed an evaluation of CASA House's group work and refined the service's group work policy and procedures, including intake and pathways from counselling to peer support groups. It's important that participants are ready for group work, which is why CASA House requires service users to have completed an episode of counselling (usually 12 sessions) first.
Gippsland CASA has recently expanded its group work offerings to include an expressive arts group, a creative journaling group and a group for young people aged 13-16. The service has also expanded its long-running trauma-informed yoga groups to new locations in Wonthaggi and Sale.
"People's recovery journeys are very personal, but thinking of the person as a whole and tapping into the creative parts of themselves or connecting to body and breath can all contribute to recovery," Kate Neocleous told SASVic.
"My hope is that people experiencing group work can build connection with others. We know that when people can form new relationships and connect with others that improves their overall wellbeing," she said.
While art therapists and yoga teachers run some of the groups at GCASA, counsellor advocates are also present.
GCASA's groups are open to anyone who has experienced sexual violence, including family of victim survivors. People can join groups at any point in their journey, subject to a screening, and GCASA can support clients from other parts of Gippsland to travel to Morwell, where most of the group work takes place.
Aisha and Kate also gave SASVic their tips on running successful group work programs.
When asked what makes an effective group work facilitator, Aisha emphasised the difference between peer support and therapeutic group work. For the former, an effective facilitator empowers the group members to have ownership and leadership of the group.
"That can show up in terms of decision-making. It can show up in terms of the way the conversation unfolds in the group... It's about facilitators who are comfortable and knowledgeable about walking the line between when to sit back and when to step in," she said.
Being able to hold multiple perspectives is also a key difference between group work and one-on-one counselling.
"It means finding a balance between the voices being heard and also being able to sort of quickly assess the nervous system regulation state of everyone in the group individually and as a group entity," Aisha explained.
When asked what advice she had for organising a successful group work program, Kate said "to be really clear on your purpose and to be able to communicate that with your staff so they can support their clients to have an understanding of why group work might be helpful to them."
Meeting with the participants individually to go through the expectations of the group, what they're hoping to gain from it and any concerns they may have is also really important. That includes making sure participants are ready.
"Groups aren't for everybody or the timing of the group might not be quite right potentially if there's complex mental health things."
If you want to tell us about your service's group work offerings, email comms@sasvic.org.au.
SASVic is collaborating with Eastern CASA, South East CASA and SAFV Centre to pilot a gay men's trauma information group. The weekly online group, which is for adult gay male survivors of child sexual abuse, will start on 24 October and run for 8 weeks. The group has been co-designed with survivor advocates, who will also contribute to the program's delivery and evaluation. More information is on our website and in the flyer linked below.
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are too often used to silence survivors of workplace sexual harassment, which is why the Victorian Government is consulting on new laws to restrict the use of NDAs in these cases.
SASVic made a submission to the Victorian Government's inquiry. The consultation asked stakeholders to comment on a legislative model developed in Ireland (the "Irish Bill"). We commend the Victorian Government for progressing this reform and we support the following measures:
- the prohibition on using NDAs in workplace sexual harassment cases except where a complainant requests such
- the enforceability of NDAs being dependent on a complainant being offered independent legal advice (you will see in our submission that we recommend both verbal and written legal advice be available in Victoria)
- complainants maintaining the right to waive the NDA aspects of their settlement agreement.
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which handed down its final report on Monday, has recommended an independent inquiry into sexual violence within the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Noting that close to 800 sexual assaults were reported in the ADF in the past five years, the final report also recommends mandatory training on managing incidents of sexual violence for all leaders, mandatory discharge for members convicted of sexual offences, as well as other measures to prevent sexual violence and better respond when it does happen.
More than half of survey respondents working in the sex industry during the pandemic experienced physical or sexual violence by clients, according to new research by Project Respect. Other findings point to increased levels of technology-facilitated abuse and intimate partner sexual violence:
- 63.6% of survey respondents reported online stalking
- 25% reported clients threatening to share intimate images to "out" their connection to the sex industry
- 47.7% reported only feeling safe in the sex industry some of the time or never
- of those who identified an intimate partner during the pandemic, 80% reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by that same partner
- only one survey respondent went to a family violence service during the pandemic.
The report's recommendations centre around improving pathways to support for women and gender diverse people in the sex industry. This includes funding for training and evaluation in specialist sexual assault services.
2 - 6 September was Child Protection Week. The eSafety Commissioner has published an updated web page for parents and carers on protecting children from sexual abuse online. The new page goes over:
- how online abuse can happen
- the impacts on children and young people
- how to get help
- how to talk to kids and teenagers about the risks
- how to use safety settings and parental controls to reduce risk
- considerations for your own social media use
- how to talk to other adults in your community about online abuse
- reporting harmful or illegal content.
While the federal government is looking into banning kids under 16 from using social media, the new Northern Territory government says it will lower the age of criminal responsibility back to 10. Here in Victoria, our government has backtracked on its promise to raise the age to 14 and instead settled on 12.
These articles explain some of the evidence behind why advocates and experts (including the United Nations) say 14 should be the absolute minimum.
In the first article, researchers from the University of Technology Sydney provide an overview of the issues, and in the second article, researchers from Melbourne and Deakin universities explain how the brain changes between the ages of 10 and 14.
Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) is seeking expressions of interest by 30th September to join its Sexual Harassment Service Reference Group. The only requirement is having lived experience of workplace sexual harassment, whether you've pursued a claim or chosen not to speak out.
Please contact Amy Harkin at amy.harkin@vla.vic.gov.au if you have any questions.
Are you looking for a leadership position? Bass Coast Health is recruiting for its Counselling Team Leader role based in Wonthaggi. The role is permanent part-time and responsible for general and mental health counselling as well as sexual assault support services and family violence counselling. More information, including key responsibilities, can be found on the Bass Coast Health website.
Applications close this Saturday, 14 September.
This article by journalist Jane Hone reiterates what we know about the medical risks and prevalence of non-fatal strangulation ('choking') among young people in Australia, while also weaving in interviews with young people who have experienced it, both consensually and non-consensually.
From the article:
“It kind of feels like a very ultimate form of intimacy, in the way that someone actually genuinely trusts you with their life."
"It’s all very complex, thorny stuff but I can say wholeheartedly that there’s no safe way to choke.”
The Victorian Government's Safe and Inclusive Sport: Preventing gender-based violence guide acknowledges the enormous capacity of sport to influence positive attitudes and behaviours around gender equity and the prevention of gender-based violence.
The guide provides 10 guiding principles, case studies and practical tools to support state sporting associations, regional sports assemblies, women’s health and community health services, local councils, and other organisations work together to develop and implement prevention of gender-based violence projects in community sport settings.
Many men are willing to stand up to harmful masculine norms but are unsure if they're capable, a new analysis from Respect Victoria (RV) has found.
You may remember the Man Box report published earlier this year. It found that men who agree with the Man Box "rules" - a set of stereotypes about what it means to be a man, like acting tough and being the primary income earner - are more likely to use violence against women.
In the second report from the study, Respect Victoria analyses the study's focus group discussions, which considered how men experience and navigate pressures related to social scripts about how they should behave and relate to others. The focus groups only involved men who didn't agree with, or only moderately agreed with, the Man Box rules, but still felt social pressure.
RV found five key opportunities in the focus group discussions:
- Men see and understand the benefits of emotionally supportive, safe and equitable intimate partner relationships for themselves and their partners.
- Fathers understand how gender norms can influence their parenting and impact their children.
- Men’s families and social networks can support them to let go of harmful ideas about what it means to be a man and can encourage healthy forms of masculinity.
- Men’s increased openness to discuss their mental health and wellbeing can be built upon by gender-transformative primary prevention efforts.
- Workplace initiatives, cultures and reforms provide opportunities to challenge harmful ideas about what it means to be a man.
The Australian Federal Police put out a warning to parents and guardians last week about the rise in "sadistic sextortion."
Sadistic sextortion involves coercing someone - as young as 12, according to the AFP - to create explicit sexual or violent content to get accepted into extreme online groups. It differs from sextortion because the perpetrators aren't motivated by financial gain - they're doing it for their own amusement, or to gain status in the group.
The AFP also states that some of the perpetrators are the same age as the people they're targeting.
The Guardian explains what this means in further detail, interviewing Professor Nicola Henry from RMIT.
National Cabinet announced a $4.7 billion funding package to respond to gendered violence last Friday. Most of this funding ($3.9 billion) is for frontline legal assistance services. The other key investments are:
- $351 million over five years for family, domestic and sexual violence services, to be matched by states and territories (at this stage we don't know how much of this will go towards Victorian sexual assault services)
- $85 million for responding to high-risk perpetrators
- $80 million for enhancing and expanding child-centric, trauma-informed support for children and young people, prioritising the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector
- identifying gaps in support for children and young people, with a focus on First Nations children and young people
- establishing national standards for men's behaviour change
- auditing systems like child support, social security and tax to see where they are being weaponised by family violence perpetrators.
SASVic welcomed the announcement and its focus on children and young people, while also calling for governments to deliver on their previous commitments.
Separately, in the lead up to Friday's meeting, there was an open letter calling on National Cabinet to implement the prevention rapid review's recommendations on alcohol.
Contents
Featured
National Cabinet promises funding to prevent and respond to gender-based violence
National Cabinet announced a $4.7 billion funding package to respond to gendered violence last Friday. Most of this funding ($3.9 billion) is for frontline legal assistance services. The other key investments are:
- $351 million over five years for family, domestic and sexual violence services, to be matched by states and territories (at this stage we don't know how much of this will go towards Victorian sexual assault services)
- $85 million for responding to high-risk perpetrators
- $80 million for enhancing and expanding child-centric, trauma-informed support for children and young people, prioritising the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector
- identifying gaps in support for children and young people, with a focus on First Nations children and young people
- establishing national standards for men's behaviour change
- auditing systems like child support, social security and tax to see where they are being weaponised by family violence perpetrators.
SASVic welcomed the announcement and its focus on children and young people, while also calling for governments to deliver on their previous commitments.
Separately, in the lead up to Friday's meeting, there was an open letter calling on National Cabinet to implement the prevention rapid review's recommendations on alcohol.
Job opportunity: Counselling Team Leader at Bass Coast Health
Are you looking for a leadership position? Bass Coast Health is recruiting for its Counselling Team Leader role based in Wonthaggi. The role is permanent part-time and responsible for general and mental health counselling as well as sexual assault support services and family violence counselling. More information, including key responsibilities, can be found on the Bass Coast Health website.
Applications close this Saturday, 14 September.
New opportunities for group work at CASA House and GCASA
CASA House and Gippsland CASA have recently had the opportunity to expand their group work offerings. The SASVic comms team had a chat to Aisha Jakszewicz from CASA House and Kate Neocleous from GCASA to find out more.
CASA House has been running peer support groups for 35 years and this year received philanthropic funding allowing Aisha to dedicate her role to group work three days a week. This has allowed CASA House to create new groups, including an Aboriginal women survivor group in partnership with Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, which will start in October, and a sex and intimacy group, which will run next year.
Psychoeducation groups addressing topics like "what is trauma?" and "what is intersectional feminism?" are also in the works.
"The thing that people get out of [group work] is belonging. They get an understanding that's unmatchable, sitting in a group of people who really get what [they've] been through," said Aisha, who has been facilitating peer support groups since 2000.
"Through the group, they recognise that they aren't in as bad a spot as they thought. They're still a lovable, OK, acceptable person."
Aisha has also completed an evaluation of CASA House's group work and refined the service's group work policy and procedures, including intake and pathways from counselling to peer support groups. It's important that participants are ready for group work, which is why CASA House requires service users to have completed an episode of counselling (usually 12 sessions) first.
Gippsland CASA has recently expanded its group work offerings to include an expressive arts group, a creative journaling group and a group for young people aged 13-16. The service has also expanded its long-running trauma-informed yoga groups to new locations in Wonthaggi and Sale.
"People's recovery journeys are very personal, but thinking of the person as a whole and tapping into the creative parts of themselves or connecting to body and breath can all contribute to recovery," Kate Neocleous told SASVic.
"My hope is that people experiencing group work can build connection with others. We know that when people can form new relationships and connect with others that improves their overall wellbeing," she said.
While art therapists and yoga teachers run some of the groups at GCASA, counsellor advocates are also present.
GCASA's groups are open to anyone who has experienced sexual violence, including family of victim survivors. People can join groups at any point in their journey, subject to a screening, and GCASA can support clients from other parts of Gippsland to travel to Morwell, where most of the group work takes place.
Aisha and Kate also gave SASVic their tips on running successful group work programs.
When asked what makes an effective group work facilitator, Aisha emphasised the difference between peer support and therapeutic group work. For the former, an effective facilitator empowers the group members to have ownership and leadership of the group.
"That can show up in terms of decision-making. It can show up in terms of the way the conversation unfolds in the group... It's about facilitators who are comfortable and knowledgeable about walking the line between when to sit back and when to step in," she said.
Being able to hold multiple perspectives is also a key difference between group work and one-on-one counselling.
"It means finding a balance between the voices being heard and also being able to sort of quickly assess the nervous system regulation state of everyone in the group individually and as a group entity," Aisha explained.
When asked what advice she had for organising a successful group work program, Kate said "to be really clear on your purpose and to be able to communicate that with your staff so they can support their clients to have an understanding of why group work might be helpful to them."
Meeting with the participants individually to go through the expectations of the group, what they're hoping to gain from it and any concerns they may have is also really important. That includes making sure participants are ready.
"Groups aren't for everybody or the timing of the group might not be quite right potentially if there's complex mental health things."
If you want to tell us about your service's group work offerings, email comms@sasvic.org.au.
Service Design & Improvement
Please send any questions you have about our work in this area to maria.papadontas@sasvic.org.au
Not alone: gay men's trauma information group
SASVic is collaborating with Eastern CASA, South East CASA and SAFV Centre to pilot a gay men's trauma information group. The weekly online group, which is for adult gay male survivors of child sexual abuse, will start on 24 October and run for 8 weeks. The group has been co-designed with survivor advocates, who will also contribute to the program's delivery and evaluation. More information is on our website and in the flyer linked below.
We've started recruiting for the group, so please circulate the flyer and webpage linked below with your intake teams.
If you know any prospective participants, you can support them to contact the ECASA intake team on 98707330. Participants will be screened to ensure that they are group ready.
Advocacy & evidence
Please send any questions you have about our work in this area to amy.webster@sasvic.org.au
Learning from the experiences of people in the sex industry during the pandemic
More than half of survey respondents working in the sex industry during the pandemic experienced physical or sexual violence by clients, according to new research by Project Respect. Other findings point to increased levels of technology-facilitated abuse and intimate partner sexual violence:
- 63.6% of survey respondents reported online stalking
- 25% reported clients threatening to share intimate images to "out" their connection to the sex industry
- 47.7% reported only feeling safe in the sex industry some of the time or never
- of those who identified an intimate partner during the pandemic, 80% reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by that same partner
- only one survey respondent went to a family violence service during the pandemic.
The report's recommendations centre around improving pathways to support for women and gender diverse people in the sex industry. This includes funding for training and evaluation in specialist sexual assault services.
Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide finds high levels of sexual violence
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which handed down its final report on Monday, has recommended an independent inquiry into sexual violence within the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Noting that close to 800 sexual assaults were reported in the ADF in the past five years, the final report also recommends mandatory training on managing incidents of sexual violence for all leaders, mandatory discharge for members convicted of sexual offences, as well as other measures to prevent sexual violence and better respond when it does happen.
Article: Why has sexual choking become so prevalent among young people?
This article by journalist Jane Hone reiterates what we know about the medical risks and prevalence of non-fatal strangulation ('choking') among young people in Australia, while also weaving in interviews with young people who have experienced it, both consensually and non-consensually.
From the article:
“It kind of feels like a very ultimate form of intimacy, in the way that someone actually genuinely trusts you with their life."
"It’s all very complex, thorny stuff but I can say wholeheartedly that there’s no safe way to choke.”
Why should the age of criminal responsibility be at least 14?
While the federal government is looking into banning kids under 16 from using social media, the new Northern Territory government says it will lower the age of criminal responsibility back to 10. Here in Victoria, our government has backtracked on its promise to raise the age to 14 and instead settled on 12.
These articles explain some of the evidence behind why advocates and experts (including the United Nations) say 14 should be the absolute minimum.
In the first article, researchers from the University of Technology Sydney provide an overview of the issues, and in the second article, researchers from Melbourne and Deakin universities explain how the brain changes between the ages of 10 and 14.
Prevention
Please send any questions you have about our work in this area to jaeme.opie@sasvic.org.au
New eSafety Commissioner resource on protecting kids online
2 - 6 September was Child Protection Week. The eSafety Commissioner has published an updated web page for parents and carers on protecting children from sexual abuse online. The new page goes over:
- how online abuse can happen
- the impacts on children and young people
- how to get help
- how to talk to kids and teenagers about the risks
- how to use safety settings and parental controls to reduce risk
- considerations for your own social media use
- how to talk to other adults in your community about online abuse
- reporting harmful or illegal content.
New government guide for prevention in sport
The Victorian Government's Safe and Inclusive Sport: Preventing gender-based violence guide acknowledges the enormous capacity of sport to influence positive attitudes and behaviours around gender equity and the prevention of gender-based violence.
The guide provides 10 guiding principles, case studies and practical tools to support state sporting associations, regional sports assemblies, women’s health and community health services, local councils, and other organisations work together to develop and implement prevention of gender-based violence projects in community sport settings.
Second "Man Box" report explores how men navigate masculinities
Many men are willing to stand up to harmful masculine norms but are unsure if they're capable, a new analysis from Respect Victoria (RV) has found.
You may remember the Man Box report published earlier this year. It found that men who agree with the Man Box "rules" - a set of stereotypes about what it means to be a man, like acting tough and being the primary income earner - are more likely to use violence against women.
In the second report from the study, Respect Victoria analyses the study's focus group discussions, which considered how men experience and navigate pressures related to social scripts about how they should behave and relate to others. The focus groups only involved men who didn't agree with, or only moderately agreed with, the Man Box rules, but still felt social pressure.
RV found five key opportunities in the focus group discussions:
- Men see and understand the benefits of emotionally supportive, safe and equitable intimate partner relationships for themselves and their partners.
- Fathers understand how gender norms can influence their parenting and impact their children.
- Men’s families and social networks can support them to let go of harmful ideas about what it means to be a man and can encourage healthy forms of masculinity.
- Men’s increased openness to discuss their mental health and wellbeing can be built upon by gender-transformative primary prevention efforts.
- Workplace initiatives, cultures and reforms provide opportunities to challenge harmful ideas about what it means to be a man.
Other news
AFP warns about "sadistic sextortion"
The Australian Federal Police put out a warning to parents and guardians last week about the rise in "sadistic sextortion."
Sadistic sextortion involves coercing someone - as young as 12, according to the AFP - to create explicit sexual or violent content to get accepted into extreme online groups. It differs from sextortion because the perpetrators aren't motivated by financial gain - they're doing it for their own amusement, or to gain status in the group.
The AFP also states that some of the perpetrators are the same age as the people they're targeting.
The Guardian explains what this means in further detail, interviewing Professor Nicola Henry from RMIT.
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.