by Michaela Meade
The Northern Community Legal Centre (NCLC) has welcomed funding for a project aimed at helping victims of family violence.
The centre, located in Broadmeadows, will receive $120,000 from the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner (VLSB+C) for its Safe Landing Project.
The project extends a model of integrated migration and family violence related legal support for women experiencing family violence on temporary visas in Melbourne’s north-west.
NCLC chief executive Jenni Smith said the project created support for women who are in unsafe situations, to get to a position of safety.
“[The funding] means that we can firstly and foremost assist victims of family violence in a way that really improves their safety,” Ms Smith said.
“Secondly, [the funding] serves as recognition of what we think is very powerful work.”
Ms Smith said that the need for a program like the Safe Landing Project was high in Hume.
“Hume had the second highest rate of family violence in the last month to November,” Ms Smith said.
Ms Smith said the project is the extension of a pilot program that launched after a “gap” was identified in available support.
She said the pilot program, which had focused on the Indian community, was “extremely successful”.
“There were increasing numbers of Indian women in our family violence clinics, but we did not have the expertise or capacity to assist them, as threats of visa cancellation… were forcing many back into unsafe family situations,” Ms Smith said.
“By providing a model of integrated legal, migration and family violence support, combined with community education and engagement for migrant women from India, the initial pilot enabled participants to find safety and establish themselves free from risk of violence.
“This funding [from VLSB+C] means we can continue and expand that program [to more of the community].”
Ms Smith said the funding will enable NCLC to recruit a migration lawyer.
