Family Violence

Family violence is a priority issue for Victoria and in our local community.

Family violence includes abusive behaviour that is physical or sexual, emotional, psychological or economic
in nature, or is threatening and coercive or controlling in any other way.
Exposing a child to these types of abusive behaviours is also a form of family violence.
(Victorian Family Violence Protection Act 2008)

Statistics:

The number of family violence incidents recorded by Victoria Police increased from 65,179 in 2013/14 to 76,124 in 2017/18
Within the SMPCP catchment incident reports increased from 4,042 to 4948 over the same period
(Victoria Police Data Tables 2017-18)
1 in 3 Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017)
1 in 5 Australian women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017)
On average, 1 woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner (Australian Institute of Criminology 2017*)

The SMPCP Family Violence Working Group was established in February 2014, when SMPCP partners saw a need to increase community awareness and the capacity of partner organisations to prevent family violence and violence against women and children.

More 20 partner organisations, community groups and schools, along with neighbouring Primary Care Partnerships and local media, worked together to develop a shared understanding of family violence issues.

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Together we:

Developed a Statement of Commitment for partner agencies
Piloted an education program in secondary schools
Developed an online family violence and gender equality training module
Developed consistent messaging across the catchment which included language that conveyed gender equity
Supported and participated in the 16 Days of Activism campaign annually between November 25 - December 10
Developed a video resource and an evaluation tool focused on the gendered drivers of family violence

In the SMPCP catchment, work to prevent violence before it starts now continues via the Bayside Peninsula Preventing Violence Together Working Group.

For information about this group, please contact Women’s Health in the South East (WHISE) on 9794 8677 or via their website www.whise.org.au

For more information about activities outlined above, contact Tracey Collins at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 8587 0338.