Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way priority area

Self-determination is at the heart of the Dhelk Dja Agreement, marking a systemic shift in the way we partner with the Aboriginal community.

The Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum and its members are the individual and collective champions and strategic leaders who oversee the Dhelk Dja Agreement and the first Dhelk Dja three-year action plan 2019–2022. This plan which articulates the critical actions and supporting activities required to progress the Dhelk Dja Agreement’s five strategic priorities.

Each of these priorities recognises the need to invest in Aboriginal culture, leadership and decision-making as the key to ending family violence in Victorian Aboriginal communities.

The Dhelk Dja Koori Caucus comprises the chairs of the 11 Dhelk Dja Action Groups and key representatives of Aboriginal services that are members of the partnership forum.

The caucus determined the need to develop a suite of specific and measurable targets and corresponding actions to eliminate violence against Aboriginal women and children. This work is to occur within the first year of the Closing the Gap Victorian implementation plan 2021–23.

A detailed data collection plan for the Dhelk Dja Agreement will be developed. This will draw on existing data as well as identifying gaps and opportunities for new data. The data will support our understanding of Aboriginal family violence. It will build the evidence base for prevention and intervention.

• Victoria Police, in partnership with Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum and the Aboriginal Justice Forum, has commenced a refresh of the current 10 Police and Aboriginal Community Protocols Against Family Violence sites. The protocols are an agreement between local Aboriginal communities and Victoria Police that document the local police response to family violence where a person identifies as Aboriginal. Victoria Police has committed to a statewide expansion to include additional sites. 
• Dhelk Dja action groups regional action plans are being developed and implemented, with many activities and events delivered virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain community engagement and connection.
• At the August 2021 partnership forum, the Aboriginal family violence industry strategy was endorsed. The strategy aims to:
  • grow and expand the Aboriginal family violence workforce
  • ensure a self-determining, valued and empowered Aboriginal family violence workforce
  • enhance workers’ employment and study skills
  • ensure a skilled and equipped Aboriginal family violence workforce
  • increase cultural safety in the workplace
  • recognise Aboriginal culture and cultural strengthening as protective factors against violence
  • enhance Aboriginal family violence workforce health, safety and wellbeing
  • ensure the Aboriginal family violence workforce is appropriately remunerated
  • recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Aboriginal-led prevention is a key priority of the Dhelk Dja Agreement. It has a particular focus on the safety of women and children. In 2021, through the annual $1.1 million Victorian Aboriginal Community Initiatives Fund, 24 Aboriginal organisations and community groups are delivering 28 projects. These culturally appropriate, place-based community-led projects are dedicated to preventing and responding to family violence in Victorian Aboriginal communities.
• The $2.7 million Preventing the Cycle of Violence Aboriginal Fund, established in 2018, supported 11 Aboriginal-led family violence prevention and early intervention initiatives. An independent evaluation found that the projects reached at least 50,000 people across Victoria. Projects from the Aboriginal Community Initiatives Fund were also evaluated. With findings supporting building Aboriginal services’ and communities’ capacity in data collection, interpretation, and translation. Findings also supported using local data and evaluation methodologies to inform planning, prioritising and reporting.
• The $18.2 million Dhelk Dja Family Violence Fund prioritises funding over two years to Aboriginal communities and their organisations to develop and deliver a range of Aboriginal-led family violence responses and initiatives. Thirty-four projects and initiatives were funded and delivered by 15 Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.
• Consistent with the Victorian Government’s commitment to self-determination, the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum endorsed the draft Aboriginal Access Points concept model in January 2020. This included the locations of the first three Aboriginal Access Points in Barwon, Bayside Peninsula and Mallee areas. After a co-design process led by key Aboriginal family violence stakeholders, the forum endorsed the Aboriginal Access Point Service Design Model in May 2021. Work is now under way to appoint the Aboriginal service agencies that will deliver the Aboriginal Access Points. The first Aboriginal Access Point will commence in mid-2022. All three Aboriginal Access Points are expected to be in operation by December 2022.

The Orange Door Aboriginal inclusion action plan was endorsed by the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum in mid-2021. The plan focuses on actions to improve access and equity for Aboriginal peoples. This is to reduce Aboriginal peoples’ experience of systemic barriers when accessing family violence and other specialist services such as child and family services.

We undertook Aboriginal-led evaluations of the Preventing the Cycle of Violence Aboriginal Fund and Aboriginal Community Initiatives Fund.

Evaluation-capacity building of the funded organisations or community groups is a significant component of the two-year evaluation project. The aim is to enable the transfer of evaluation skills and capacity to inform their work with Aboriginal communities.

This project makes an important and significant contribution to the evidence base for what works in family violence prevention for Aboriginal communities.

Final evaluation reports have been provided to the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum to inform future direction.

An independent evaluation of the Aboriginal Innovation Fund  was also conducted in 2021, led by a First Nations consultancy firm. The findings offer opportunities to strengthen Aboriginal-led prevention activities and culturally- safe commissioning processes.

We are strengthening family violence prevention by investing in Aboriginal community-led projects and initiatives through the Dhelk Dja Family Violence Fund and Aboriginal Community Initiatives Fund. Prevention and early intervention must be grounded in cultural strengthening, cultural expertise and education. This will be led and driven by the Aboriginal community. It will have self-determination at the centre of all decisions.

We know that Aboriginal people are disproportionately affected by family violence, particularly women and children. Activities across the priority areas, such as the use of the Central Information Point, assist risk identification. This supports services to prevent the escalation of violence. The design of the concept model for Aboriginal Access Points has been led by the Aboriginal community. This ensures access points will be culturally sensitive. Once established, it will provide a service pathway that can appropriately respond and support Aboriginal victim survivors to ensure they are safe. 

We continue to work with perpetrators and people who use violence. This work aims to change their understanding of family violence and their attitudes. Ultimately, it seeks to support them to change their behaviour. This requires significant commitment from the perpetrator and support services. Our activities in other priority areas such as the Koori Cultural Safety Initiative, and the Medium-term Perpetrator Accommodation Scheme consider the different requirements of Aboriginal people who are perpetrators or who use violence.

The Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way – Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families is an Aboriginal-led approach to addressing reform within the system. Activities being delivered recognise the need to respond to all forms of family violence experienced by Aboriginal people in a culturally safe and inclusive way. The approach has focused on integrating the family violence system and making services and programs more accessible to Aboriginal communities. It also ensures that staff and practice leaders from Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations are engaged and able to provide culturally appropriate responses. This ensures the system is more responsive and that the professionals within it are skilled, capable and reflect the communities they serve.