During the week of 20 April 2015 (next week), the Royal Commission will begin its 5-week intensive community consultation program. The consultation program involves a mix of regional and metro group consultations as well as a number of sessions that will target specific cohorts (such as CALD women, women with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, older victims, men etc). Some of the sessions are for people working in the broader family violence field, others are for people directly affected by family violence themselves.
Advertisements for the consultations began to appear in the Melbourne newspapers from yesterday, and will start to appear in the regional newspapers over the coming days. As we are mindful of the need to manage the safety and security of consultation participants, the ads do not publicise the locations, dates or venues, but ask interested people (those who have experienced family violence or work in the sector) to call the Royal Commission to register their interest in attending.
Community Consultation Session for Workers Working with Children and Young People Experiencing Family Violence
The Royal Commission is holding a session specifically for workers who work with children and young people who have/are experiencing family violence in the morning on 24 April in the Melbourne CBD. The session will take about an hour to an hour and a half. At least one of the Commissioners will be at the consultation session. It will be facilitated, and the participants, in small groups of 6-8 per table, will be guided through a discussion in response to 3-4 questions. The session will focus on asking the participants to help identify systemic issues and opportunities, and the information gathered from the consultations will help inform the work of the Royal Commission, particularly the public hearings, the research and the report.
The phone number for people who want to register their interest in attending a consultation session is 1800 365 100 and the line is open Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 5.00pm. For those who work with children and young people, they may want to specify the session on the morning of 24 April as their preference. Help will be provided to people to identify the most convenient session for them if this doesn’t suit them and they would like to attend a more generic family violence workers session.
