Family Violence Experts by Experience Framework development

Background

Following Victoria's Royal Commission into Family Violence, the Family Violence Philanthropy Collaboration Project (FVPCP) was established at Domestic Violence Victoria to bring together representatives from the specialist family violence, philanthropic and government sectors to support a coordinated response to the implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations.

This group worked with the specialist family violence sector to identify a range of strategic areas for philanthropic investment to address some of the sector's emerging needs. One of the projects funded was the development of a lived experience framework for specialist family violence services. The project was supported by Domestic Violence Victoria as part of the Family Violence Sector Capacity Building Program.

Aim

The Family Violence Experts by Experience Framework aims to enhance the ability of specialist family violence services to provide opportunities for survivor advocates to influence policy development, service planning and practice by encouraging sharing knowledge and experience gained from services and survivor advocates who have been engaged in collaborative work by:

- providing guidelines around best practice for engaging survivor advocates
of family violence in collaborative work

- providing resources to support survivor advocates and organisations
become ready to engage in collaborative work.

Methods

The Family Violence Experts by Experience Framework was co-produced by researchers from the University of Melbourne Research Alliance to End Violence to Women and their Children (MAEVe) with victims and survivors from the MAEVe WEAVERs Victim Survivor Group. The project was also guided by an advisory group comprised of victims and survivors and organisations who work with people who have experienced family violence.

The development of the framework was supported by three forms of data collection:
- a literature review
- mapping existing initiatives
- consultation with key stakeholders.

Consultation methods included:
- surveys (of victims and survivors and practitioners)
- focus groups (in person and via Zoom) with practitioners and victims and survivors
- interviews with victims and survivors and practitioners.

Significance

The Family Violence Experts by Experience Framework established a number of key principles for best practice to guide formal collaborative processes for engaging survivor advocates by specialist family violence services. The framework is available in a variety of forms (as a longer research report, as a short executive summary and via a web portal). A number of tools, resources and templates were developed as part of the framework and can be downloaded from the link detailed below.

Funding Body

Domestic Violence Victoria received funding from the The Family Violence Philanthropy Collaboration Project (FVPCP) for this work which was undertaken by the University of Melbourne team.

Project start date

August 2019

Expected completion date

July 2020