Welcome and overview
Welcome to the Program. You are joining up to 44 other graduates participating in the Program across Victoria this year.
The Program is a collaboration between the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s Centre for Workforce Excellence (CWE), the Learning and Development Facilitator, Family Violence Regional Integration Committees and employing agencies.
The Program will provide you with the opportunity to gain practical skills and knowledge, while also receiving additional training and development support.
The information below has been provided to support you over the course of the Program. You will also receive an email from CWE prior to your induction session providing you with key dates specific to you.
On this page:
- How the Program works
- Your role in the Program
- Your learning and development journey
- Key dates
- Additional support and networking
- Key contacts
How the Program works
The Program has four key components, detailed below:
- State-wide learning opportunities – you will be invited to attend a range of state-wide learning and networking opportunities throughout the year, which are overseen primarily by CWE and the Learning and Development Facilitator. These focus on foundational skills will give you the opportunity to meet your fellow graduates from across the state.
- Support from a Learning and Development Facilitator - throughout the year, you will be supported by a Learning and Development Facilitator who has been engaged by CWE.
- Graduate funding allocation - your agency has been provided with a funding allocation to support your learning and development over the course of the Program. Your local area also receives funding to organise activities for you and other graduates in your local area.
- Reduced workload - as part of the Program, you will have a reduced workload to ensure that you can participate in all Program activities. If you are in the specialist stream, this means you will have a reduced caseload. What a reduced caseload looks like might differ depending on what role you are in and what type of work you undertake, recognising that your workload may increase slowly over the year as your confidence and knowledge grow. A basic recommendation is that you will have around 75% of a normal caseload.
Your role in the Program
Your agency is responsible for the management of day-to-day aspects of the Program within their organisations. They are expected to provide you with guidance and support (including regular supervision) and support you in identifying learning and development opportunities that your funding allocation may be spent on throughout the year.
As a graduate, you are expected to:
- participate and contribute to all Program activities, such as induction sessions, monthly communities of practice and expected state-wide learning and development opportunities
- work proactively and collaboratively with your employing agency to determine what professional learning and development opportunities may be most beneficial for you over the course of the year
- advise your employing agency in advance when you are undertaking Program activities so that your absence is known and able to be planned for
- work with your employing agency around your reduced workload, including taking an active role in learning how to assess and manage this
- contribute to the continuous improvement of the Program by completing a brief ‘graduate report’ at the end of the year and participating in evaluation activities.
At the end of your graduate year we want to hear about your experience and request that you complete the Graduate report.
The Graduate report provides a brief overview of your experience in the Program, such as the highlights, any challenges you experienced and suggestions for future Program improvements.
Key Contacts
In directing any questions you may have, please refer to the table below
| For questions about: | Please contact: |
|---|---|
| State-wide learning and networking opportunities, monthly communities of practice and any issues/concerns |
Dr Deborah Western, Learning and Development Facilitator |
| Your role and access to learning and development | Your key contact and/or supervisor at your employing agency |
| Funding allocation, relocation funding and questions around the Program more broadly |
Graduate Program team |
Peak Body sites
There are 3 main peak bodies that you will come across. These are:
Safe and Equal for specialist family violence services that provide support to victim survivors in Victoria. Safe and Equal provide specialist expertise across primary prevention, early intervention, response and recovery approaches and the inter-connections between them. Work is focused on developing and advancing specialist practice for responding to victim survivors, building the capability of specialist family violence services and allied workforces, organisations and sectors that come into contact with victim-survivors; building the capabilities of workforces focused on primary prevention; and leading and contributing to the translation of evidence and research, practice expertise, and lived experience into safe and effective policy, system design and law reform.
Find out more about Safe and Equal.
No to Violence (NTV) has worked directly with men who use family violence for 25 years. NTV is the largest peak body in Australia for organisations and individuals who work with men to end family violence. NTV works across the family violence sector and governments to develop and advocate for best practice policy in stopping men’s use of family violence. NTV provides a range of training and professional development to a variety of audiences, from practitioners of differing experience levels to corporate leadership and human resources. NTV works closely with member organisations and across the national sector to establish best practice for everyone who works with men who use violence. The Men’s Referral Service (MRS) men’s family violence telephone counselling, information and referral service operates around the country and is the central point of contact for men taking responsibility for their violent behaviour. MRS services include the Brief Intervention Service (BIS) which is a flexible, multi-session service focusing on providing short term multi-sessional telephone support for men who use family violence, men who are on a waiting list for family violence support and the Men’s Accommodation and Counselling Service (MACS) which provides crisis accommodation for men who have been excluded from the home and are interested in counselling support to address their behaviour.
Sexual Assault Services Victoria (SASVic) is the peak body for specialist sexual assault and harmful sexual behaviour (SA & HSB) services in Victoria.
SASVic works to promote rights, recovery and respect for victim survivors and other people impacted by sexual violence and harm. It seeks to achieve this by working collectively to change the attitudes, systems and structures that enable sexual violence to occur.
Updated