The Victorian State Government has requested feedback on its “Strong foundations: Building on Victoria’s work to end family violence” document. This plan will deliver on five focus areas: Drive down family and sexual violence, Focus on children and young people, Strengthen support for victim survivors, Respond to change and Understand and demonstrate our impact. The government will outline concreate actions, timelines and roles for delivery in the Family Violence Reform Rolling Action Plan 2024 – 2026.
WHISE has engaged internally with its staff and externally with its partners to make recommendations on the Strong Foundations plan and identify ways in which the government can strengthen its actions over the next three years.
WHISE supports the Victorian government’s focus on primary prevention. However, this is a chronically underfunded area and is widely recognised to have significant returns on investment both in terms of costs but also in health outcomes for the community.
WHISE applauds the commitment to Aboriginal self-determination and it’s continued engagement with Dhelk Dja. We are glad to see continued focus on engaging men and boys but this needs to be a separate part of the plan called Building Healthier Masculinities to develop a positive vision for men and boys in the future. WHISE also supports to shifting of focus onto people who use violence, it’s continued support for victim/survivors, embedding lived experience and expanding the diversity of the family violence and community-sector workforces. It’s important to have robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks in place so that we can ensure accountability, track impact, respond to changes and celebrate achievements.