The internationally renowned team at the ACCP often leads ground-breaking research into the issues that are most prominently affecting children, young people and their families.
Family and domestic violence (FDV) affects one in ten Australian families. It places family members (particularly women and children) at significant risk and often has lifelong impacts. There are many services and systems that interact with women, men and children experiencing family and domestic violence, including child protection. The ACCP believes that in order to consider how services and systems can better respond to the needs of women, men and children, we must first develop a better understanding of how these families experience violence and what they want and need from the various systems which they interact with.
In 2018-19, the ACCP conducted a collaborative, ground-breaking study into the welfare system, which took first-hand accounts from mothers, fathers and children with lived experiences of FDV, as well as the practitioners who work directly with them. The study was commissioned by the Department of Social Services and was implemented with colleagues from Positive Futures and the Schools of Social Work at UniSA and Curtin University.
This eye-opening study explored the experiences of mothers, fathers, and young people during periods of violence, separation and reunification, culminating in two research reports and an innovative guide on what can be done to improve children and young people’s safety.
This research is promoting the development of better approaches to responding to families who have experienced FDV, underpinned by an appreciation of the lived experience of family violence and a sensitivity to all family members’ own conceptualisations of safety.
Click here to read the first-hand accounts of families
Click here to read the first-hand accounts of practitioners
Click here for Slow Down & Listen: A practice brief on improving children’s and young people’s safety during periods of violence, separation and reunification
