Implement recommendations from the Indigenous Family Violence Ten Year Plan

The Dhelk Dja Action Plan Working Group was established with the responsibility for reviewing ‘completed’ recommendations from the mid-term evaluation. They are also responsible for considering how ‘ongoing’ recommendations can be captured in the first Dhelk Dja 3 Year Action Plan or Dhelk Dja Investment Strategy. This aims to provide a more streamlined and consistent approach for the Partnership Forum and Government to prioritise work and monitor progress against these priorities.

The specific priorities and supporting activities related to the mid-term evaluation recommendations and Recommendation 144 include:

Strategic Priority 3: Self-determining Aboriginal family violence support and services

• Undertake ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM), including within Aboriginal organisations, to ensure continuous quality improvement and strengthen approaches to family violence risk assessment and management for people from Aboriginal communities.
• Implement the DHHS Prioritised Funding Policy for family violence service funding.
• Review the implementation approach for Aboriginal frontline service investment to ensure it has addressed service fragmentation and supports consistency of service access to culturally responsive programs.
• Strategic Priority 5: Aboriginal-led and informed innovation, data and research.
• Develop a Dhelk Dja Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability Plan (MEAP) – a suite of Aboriginal defined indicators, outcomes and accountability mechanisms to monitor progress of the Dhelk Dja Agreement.
• Undertake an Aboriginal-led evaluation of the Preventing the Cycle of Violence Aboriginal Fund and Aboriginal Community Initiatives Fund that builds Aboriginal service and communities’ capacity in data collection, interpretation and translation; and using local data and evaluation methodologies to inform planning, prioritising and reporting.
• Determine what data Aboriginal communities need and want to collect that builds an evidence base, and hold service providers to account, around family violence and family safety, particularly for the most vulnerable cohorts in the community - women, children and Elders. Identify the gaps and data linkages in current data collection processes and systems.
• Invest in data collection mechanisms, based on Aboriginal-defined measures of safety and wellbeing, that generate qualitative and quantitative feedback from service users. This includes capturing services’ cultural responsiveness.
• Work with relevant departments and agencies including The Orange Door Network, to reduce the number and percentage of cases where Aboriginality is recorded as ‘unknown’ or ‘not stated’. This includes the identification of Aboriginal children where the presenting parent is not Aboriginal.
• Develop a data-sharing protocol between data custodians and the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum to improve access to data, create regional profiles and inform planning and prioritisation.

The Royal Commission into Family Violence made specific mention of Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families as foundational work in family violence policy, and made nine recommendations specific to Aboriginal communities, to increase investment in targeted prevention and early intervention initiatives, as well as culturally sensitive services.

Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way – Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families 2018-2028 is the key Aboriginal-led Victorian Agreement that commits Aboriginal communities, Aboriginal services and government to work together and be accountable for ensuring that Aboriginal people, families and communities are stronger, safer, thriving and living free from family violence.

The Dhelk Dja Three-Year Action Plan 2019-2022 (Three-Year Action Plan) articulate the critical actions and supporting activities required to progress the Dhelk Dja Agreement’s five strategic priorities. Each of these priorities recognise the need to invest in Aboriginal culture, leadership and decision making as the key to ending family violence in Victorian Aboriginal communities. In October 2019, the first Three-Year Action Plan was endorsed by the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum and incorporates the remaining recommendations.

The Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum and its members are the individual and collective champions and strategic leaders that oversee the agreement and Three-Year Action Plan. Aboriginal community leaders and the Victorian Government work closely with the community and stakeholders to refine the Aboriginal-led agenda for culturally safe responses to family violence and to make key decisions, advance the strategic priorities and monitor progress against the Dhelk Dja agreement.

Implemented.