First Nations-led research out of the University of Melbourne will strive to form a better understanding of families impacted by family violence, supports available to them, and the intersection of child removals.
A multi-disciplinary academic team will work with a list of community partners including Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations, frontline workers, peaks and government agency for the Harm to Healing: Strength-Based Approaches to Family Violence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people project.
It's backed by $5 million in funding.
Professor Marcia Langton is lead investigator of the project assessing experiences of families, including victims and perpetrators, building on previous research, with the goal of reducing the prevalence of the scourge of family and domestic violence.
"Trends in violence now represent a crisis for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children, but the tools exist to reduce violence," Professor Langton said.
The project is being administered by the University of Melbourne's Onemda: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing and Wellbeing's Indigenous Studies Unit.
Principally, the team will look at four key areas:
- The project will attempt to form a picture on the prevalence and experience of female survivors of family violence whose children have also entered out-of-home care (OOHC).
- Perpetrator experiences to be included within this are purposeful to gain comprehensive understanding of a complex issue.
- A review and evidence map will be developed out of researching programs available as supports for Aboriginal survivors and perpetrators of family violence, as well as researchers asking what's needed for community services to deliver preventive and early intervention programs, with a resulting co-design toolkit.
- The effectiveness of the co-developed 'Baby Coming You Ready? (BCYR)' in increasing identification of family violence will also be of focus.
"This research will be crucial in improving understanding and strengthening responses to the challenge of family violence that erodes the safety of families and communities and drives the critical issue of rising out-of-home-care (OOHC) admissions," Professor Langton said.
"We will integrate current and new research findings into a living systematic review and create user-friendly evidence map, while developing resources to support community services to identify, implement, and evaluate new and existing interventions to reduce risk for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) people experiencing family violence."
Funding has come out of the federal Government's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and its Targeted Call for Research (TCR): Addressing Violence for Safer Families and Communities.
In a statement this week, federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the impact of violence on families and communities is devastating, and is something dispoportionately impacting First Nations families.
"We are investing in research that will help families and communities to be safe and well," he said.
"This research will ultimately lead to safer and healthier futures for all Australians."
