PIPSI is a three-year research initiative led by the Violence against Women and Children research team at the University of Melbourne and the National University of Samoa, in partnership with Griffith University and under the auspices of the Centre for Excellence for the Elimination of ...

The aim of this research was to explore how Power to Kids can be tailored to education environments, and be offered as a commercialised program to all Australian schools. It will address HSB, CSE and DV through enhancing the capacity of schools to prevent, identify ...

The aim of this project was to enhance the evidence base about adolescent peer-to-peer and intimate partner HSB, with a particular focus on technology, and translate that evidence into the Power to Kids program. Further, the role of pornography in pathways to onset of HSB ...

The aim of WASAPP was to synthesise current evidence and generate new evidence about intervening early in problematic or harmful sexual behaviour, and to apply that evidence to the codesign of an online early intervention service for children and young people worried about their sexual ...

Family Violence Behaviour Change Program Evaluation  The University of Melbourne is leading a longitudinal evaluation of Family Violence Behaviour Change Programs across Victoria. This long-term evaluation was commissioned by the Department of Justice and Community Safety as a priority area. The evaluation aims to inform future investment ...

Every Victim’s Voice Is Essential (EVVIE) is a group comprised of five survivors of children’s harmful sexual behaviour (child-on-child sexual abuse), and three researchers. The aim of EVVIE is to protect children from harmful sexual behaviour (HSB). Objectives include: Amplify voices of victim-survivors Raise community/public ...

BLOCK aims to explore how the social media ban is being experienced by children, parents and carers associated with Mackillop Family Services. It is informed by the research question: How are MacKillop parents, carers and children experiencing the social media ban? The objectives of the ...

Abstract: This project aimed to explore relational support as an area of learning and intervention contributing to more positive relationships, recovery, and wellbeing for people with lived experience of BPD. This study focused on family, friends and carers of someone with BPD as a priority ...

Abstract: The Power to Kids program seeks to strengthen prevention and early intervention efforts in response to sexual exploitation, harmful sexual behavior and dating violence in residential care. This is achieved through: upskilling carers about sexual health and safety knowledge; building carers capabilities to prevent, ...

DAHLIA-19 is examining policy and practice responses in 4 upper or upper/middle income countries with established DA services where different strategies have been introduced. In each country, a team of academic researchers works with major partner organisations to ensure that the study can draw on ...

Perpetrators of family violence often threaten to abuse or harm family pets and animals as a way to exert control. This project is focused on building the evidence-base around connections between domestic violence and harm to animals. Our work includes contributing to the evidence through ...

The Respecting Sexual Safety action research project aims to co-design and implement prevention strategies targeting harmful sexual behaviour, child sexual exploitation and dating violence for children and young people living in out-of-home care. Three prevention strategies are being trialled and evaluated in four residential houses ...

The aim of the SARA project is to explore how children experiencing domestic and family violence (DFV) can act as consultants to research projects and how they wish to be talked to by professionals about risk and safety. The study has two objectives: (i) develop ...

The Alliance involves a collaboration with GP Practice and Primary Care with Professor Cathy Humphreys from Social Work and Professor Kelsey Hegarty from General Practice as co-leads. It strives to make a difference to the lives of women and children affected by abuse and violence ...

The aim of the WASAPP project is to synthesise current evidence and generate new evidence about secondary prevention of harmful sexual behaviour, and to apply that evidence to the co-design of a Stop it Now! service or online website response to young people worried about ...

Reliable, comparable data on violence against women are essential to prevention and response efforts, however technical capacity to collect data about violence against women safely and accurately is limited. In light of this, UNFPA in partnership with the University of Melbourne, ANROWS, and Australian Department ...

Keeping Safe Together (KST) program offers a whole of family case management approach for families who have been impacted by family violence and want to stay together. Program staff work with mothers, fathers and children individually through both accountability and therapeutic lenses. The evaluation aims ...

This research project aims to capture the experiences and comprehensively understand the needs of Samoan and Pasifika communities when seeking support from frontline services. We want to understand both the formal and informal pathways that Samoan families use, with a focus on how the community ...

The RHYS project focuses on how the Victorian education system and specialist sexual assault service system respond to children’s harmful sexual behaviour in schools. RHYS will collect data from survivors of harmful sexual behaviour in schools to understand their experiences of the responses. Further data ...

This PhD project is an action research study that investigates systemic ways to improve cross-sector collaboration between substance use and family violence services. This project is nested within the KODY research. Researchers: Van Callaly, Cathy Humphreys, Margaret Kertesz, Jennifer Davidson, Anne-Marie Laslett Project Dates: 2021-2024 ...

Abstract: The DICE project builds upon the work of Power to Kids as well as other multiagency initiatives such as the work of the Victorian Office of Professional Practice (Enhanced Response Model and Sexual Exploitation Protocol), to address the need for further development of a ...

This PhD project is investigating the prevalence of domestic and family violence (DFV) in the lives of health professionals, and the impact of DFV on clinical work with survivor women patients. Researchers: Ms Elizabeth McLindon, Professor Cathy Humphrey and Professor Kelsey Hegarty Funders: The Sidney ...

The research examines the socio-cultural factors of adult familial homicide in Victoria. The project aims to examine the role that socio-cultural factors can play for both the deceased and the offender and within intimate partner and other (non-intimate) family relationships. It is intended that the ...

Understanding the psychological process of reparation and self-forgiveness has been an area of increased research interest over the last decade. Theoretical and empirical models have linked guilt, shame, self-oriented and other-oriented empathy, conciliatory behaviour and self-forgiveness together but there is a lack of clarity around ...

General practitioners (GPs) and practice nurses (PNs) are mandated to report suspicion of child maltreatment in Australia. However, the decision to report child maltreatment is emotionally difficult for GPs and practice nurses. My project aims to co-design a decision-making tool to improve decision-making involving mandatory ...

Despite ten years of growth in knowledge translation research there is still a gap between research findings and applying this knowledge in practice. Recently, there has also been a rapid expansion of domestic violence research, however there remains a lack of evaluation of their knowledge ...

The Cloaked in Strength study aims to explore Aboriginal mothers’ experiences of family violence using possum skin cloak making as a tool of engagement, resilience and resistance. It is built upon the core premises of Indigenous research: relationality and accountability, place, reciprocity and reflexivity. The ...

This research aimed to conduct an action research evaluation of the process involved in MacKillop supporting residential care organisations to implement the Power to Kids programs via a Power to Kids “Package.” It was informed by the overarching research question: How can the Power to Kids Upscale Package enhance organisational capacity ...

The aim of this research was to undertake a process and outcomes evaluation of the Power to Kids program in the context of home-based care. The key evaluation question was: How does the Power to Kids program impact prevention of, and response to, harmful sexual behaviour, child ...

The aim of this postdoctoral research project was to generate and synthesise evidence to inform the design of the Power to Kids program.  Publications: McKibbin, G. & Humphreys, C. (2019). The Perceptions of Australian workers about caring for sexually exploited children in residential care. Child Abuse Review ...

The aim of this research was to co-design, implement and evaluate strategies to prevent and intervene early in harmful sexual behaviour, child sexual exploitation and dating violence in residential care.  The key research questions informing the project were:  What are the components of a promising prevention program targeting ...

AVA aimed to capture the insights of child-on-child Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) victim-survivors about their experiences, impacts and service needs. What is the nature of victim-survivor’s experience of child-on-child HSB?  How do victim-survivors construct their experience of child-on-child HSB?  How were constructs co-produced between victim-survivors ...

CHRISTIE is an action research project which will extend the evidence base about effective interagency work for children, young people and families impacted by domestic violence so that they experience service systems that work as collaborative partners to keep children safe and together with non-offending ...

This project explored whole of family approaches to addressing family violence when there are intersecting issues of alcohol and other drug use, mental health and child protection. The Project explored Aboriginal expertise on holistic approaches to this work, whilst at the same time examining the ...

This project focused on how children and young people are being coerced to ‘self-produce’ Child Exploitation Material (CEM). This qualitative study utilised an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to hear from children, young people and relevant professionals so they can identity the various pathways leading children and ...

Abstract: The Safe at Home, Experiences, Barriers and Access (SHEBA) Project drew on a strong partnership between researchers (University of Melbourne and University of NSW), Victorian Community Sector organisations providing family violence services (McAuley, Good Shepherd Australia and New Zealand, In-Touch, Centre of Non-Violence) and ...

Abstract: Stop It Now! is an early intervention program that operates in North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the Netherlands, and has also previously operated on a small scale in Queensland, Australia. The central aim of the Stop It Now! service is to ...

The KODY research project (Kids First (Caring Dads) and Odyssey House Victoria (Kids in Focus) surrounded the innovative KODY intervention which aimed to address the combined impact of harmful behaviours, drugs and alcohol on family relationships. The KODY program took an all-of-family approach incorporating a ...

ESTIE is an action research study that is simultaneously investigating and developing practitioner and organisational capacity to drive improvements in collaborative and holistic service provision for children and families living with DFV where parental issues of mental health and/or alcohol and other drug use co-occur ...

STACY for Children (2019-20) involved two studies that investigated whether there was emerging evidence that the Safe & Together™ Model leads to better outcomes for children and families living with DFV and parental issues of alcohol and other drug misuse and/or mental health problems. Study ...

The STACY Project aims to investigate and develop practitioner and organisational capacity to work collaboratively across services providing interventions to children and families living with domestic and family violence (DFV) and where there are parental issues of mental health (MH) and alcohol and other drug ...

Invisible Practices was an action research project that involved the domestic and family violence-informed Safe & Together™ Model that capacity built participating organisations in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and WA in working with fathers who use violence. A multi-disciplinary, interagency Community of Practice (CoP) was established ...

Kids First (formerly Children’s Protection Society), in partnership with UnitingCare ReGen, Anglicare Victoria and IPC Health, are currently trialling and developing the Caring Dads program in Victoria, with a view to delivering the program across the state. In late 2016, our team was contracted to ...

This project is an evaluation of the Reaching Children Through Universal Services (RCUS) project (one of 26 Family Violence Therapeutic Interventions demonstration projects funded by DHHS across Victoria). As RCUS is a newly implemented demonstration project, the aims of this evaluation are to document the ...

Children and Mothers in Mind (CMIM) is a group program for mothers and pre-school children who have experienced family violence in the past. Developed as Mothers in Mind by the Child Development Institute (CDI), Canada, the Children's Protection Society piloted Mothers in Mind in 2016-17 ...

While the dominant pattern of domestic and family violence (DFV) is male violence perpetrated against women, there are some women who use force against adult members of their families. The majority of these women are themselves victims/survivors of DFV. At times women are wrongly identified ...

The EVA project is a 12-month evaluation capacity building initiative for family violence service providers in Australia. The project is a collaboration between Drummond Street Services and University of Melbourne to develop family violence specific evaluation resources, establish and develop a Community of Practice for ...

This project explored the relationship between statutory child protection and specialist domestic and family violence services in order to discern the elements that facilitate differential pathways and appropriate integrated service system support for the safety and well-being of women and children living with and separating.  ...

This project developed a theoretical model to frame child protection practice where there are children living with family violence, in partial fulfillment of the Victorian Royal Commission recommendations for child protection workers. The integrative approach taken by the researchers builds on the foundations of The ...

This ARC Linkage project is aimed at improving the parenting experience of children whose fathers have used domestic and family violence (D/FV) and brings together: researchers from The University of Melbourne, University of South Australia and Curtin University; a consortium of 23 NGOs (see list ...

The Young People’s Voices Project sought the perspectives of young people aged 9-21 years who have experienced family violence about what makes a good father, the impact of having a father who uses violence on his children as well as how/whether a father who uses ...