inTouch’s learning and development team has remained extremely busy throughout the last quarter, delivering an ongoing calendar of training to professionals, volunteers and community members to develop their understanding and skills in working with culturally and linguistically diverse women and families experiencing family violence. We also help to build the capacity of family violence and mainstream service providers in order to improve sector responsiveness to the needs of culturally diverse communities.
Recently, we’ve been funded by Family Safety Victoria to work with refuge services across the state, a workforce of around 250 people across 22 sites which provide accommodation and support to people and families experiencing family violence.
Specifically, inTouch has provided an assessment of the needs of temporary visa holders when accessing refuge services and held appropriate training to fill gaps in knowledge and practice. The project stems from consultation between FSV and refuges regarding the support provided to this cohort of women and the identified lack of confidence from some service providers.
We were able to deliver five sessions of full-day training to refuge staff across Victoria, consisting of a culturally responsive practice session combined with information on working with women on temporary visas, which was co-facilitated with our migration agent and case managers. inTouch hope to continue this partnership with the refuge sector and offer more training throughout the year.
