Expanding early interventions in family violence in Victoria

The Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence (RCFV) envisaged a family violence system in which all universal services are enabled to engage in early interventions in family violence. Such a significant broad-based reform has major implications for organisations and their staff. This project scoped a range of specialist family violence and universal services and organisations in Victoria to ascertain their capability and perspectives on early intervention in family violence. Its findings reveal a readiness to engage with the issue across these services. The organisations interviewed shared the expectation that they had a role and a responsibility to help address family violence in their client group and within their workforce, although there was uncertainty about what that role would be. The insights of women affected by family violence provide the foundation for this work. Their experiences illustrate the complex nature and dynamics of family violence, including the often covert effects of coercive and controlling behaviours. Understanding these dynamics is the foundation for all practitioners in all universal services engaging in early intervention responses.The project provides a qualitative snapshot of the early intervention landscape through the perspectives of specialist family violence practitioners and universal service providers in education, early childhood and health settings, as well as women who have experienced family violence