Good Practice in Indigenous Family Violence Prevention – Designing and Evaluating Successful Programs

Good Practice in Indigenous Family Violence Prevention – Designing and Evaluating Successful Programs Films

ABC Country Radio

  • Author(s): Memmott, P., Chambers, C., Go-Sam, C., Thomson, L.
  • Published: 2006
  • Publisher: Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Queensland

Link to resource Report broken link

Abstract: Family violence mars the lives of a very large number of Indigenous Australians, helping to effectively disable many communities and deny future generations a basic chance for health, happiness and prosperity. It is important to understand why some programs aimed at changing this situation succeed, and in fact what success means in this field, both in order to advise government spending and to assist Indigenous organisations and groups putting that money into action at the coalface. The core aim of this paper is to consider the current state of good practice with regard to projects or programs aimed at reducing family violence. With the Federal government expending greater amounts on family violence programs in recent years, as well as most State and Territory governments developing relevant strategies and initiatives, this is a useful opportunity to reflect on which programs have been shown to work and in what ways. Also of interest are the approaches that would form part of a sustainable model for dealing with this issue. The awareness among various groups of Australians, including government departments, of disproportionately high and widespread levels of Indigenous family violence was raised by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Fifteen years later these rates of Indigenous violence and incarceration continue across the country, yet it remains difficult to find good practice guidelines for those wishing to combat Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence. Underlying this problem is the lack of published evaluation studies of anti-violence projects and programs conducted among Indigenous Australians.

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