Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) Prevention Month is an incredibly important time for the community to raise awareness of DFV. This May, our team at Act for Kids went absolutely above and beyond hosting and participating in events to raise community awareness, from attending a domestic violence forum, to creating the ‘Stand-Up Man’ initiative, and much more!
On the 19th of May, Act for Kids teamed up with the Kedron Football Club for ‘How’s Your Home Game?’ – A fantastic day of football and focusing on men and their important relationships, as partners, fathers and role models. The event was a huge success, with all of the football players wearing Act for Kids’ ‘Stand-Up Man’ stickers and standing up to DFV. The purpose of the event was to start a conversation, not just about what it means for men to not use violence, but what it means for them to be a ‘Stand-Up Man’, and that it did!
Our Brisbane North team had the pleasure of joining Beyond DV, DVConnect, BDVS, Save the Children and Minister for Child Safety, the Hon Di Farmer MP at a very wet but worthy Brisbane Lions AFL Game for the Lions Guard of Honour. The enthusiastic Brisbane North team, along with Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Practitioners from all around Queensland, also attended Platform 1225 Forum and discussed the intersection of domestic violence and youth homelessness.
Act for Kids Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Practitioner Melissa Poulier, said DFV is a major issue for our community and not one that should be kept private.
“The protection of women and children needs to be a priority. Act for Kids employs Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Practitioners in their Family and Child Connect (FaCC) and Intensive Family Support (IFS) services in order to maximize the capacity of the programs in delivering safe and responsible domestic violence work in the community.
“DFV Prevention Month was a great opportunity to spread the message that violence against women and children is never okay. We also enjoyed the chance to develop our skills and strengthen relationships with other DFV services in the Brisbane North area, so that families we work with can be connected to support services that we know and trust,” she said.
Our activities to raise awareness and build knowledge of DFV did not stop in the community. We also conducted internal activities to share and reiterate the learnings from the recent 1st Asia Pacific Safe & Together Model Conference, held by David Mandel in February. The two Act for Kids Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Practitioners who attended the conference have taken the opportunity to share their insight and reiterate the globally respected approach created by David Mandel. Act for Kids is very excited to implement the learnings of the approach focused on working with families impacted by domestic violence perpetrator behaviour to better support vulnerable families right across Australia.