Supporting young people experiencing family violence: Shortfalls but also opportunities

The Royal Commission into Family Violence found that appropriate supports for children and young people experiencing family violence were lacking. In a new report just released by Melbourne City Mission, the shortfalls and gaps are explored in depth, along with recommendations for strengthening the service response in ways appropriate for young people. Today’s analysis is a summary of key findings provided by co-authors Shorna Moore of Melbourne City Mission (@MelbCityMission) and Tanya Corrie (@TanyaCorrie) of Corrie Consulting. You can access the full report here: Amplify: Turning up the Volume on Young People and Family Violence.

We wish to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Tash Anderson, Elvis Martin, Kaitlyne Bowden and April, youth advocates with lived expertise, whose insights have been integral to shaping and guiding the Amplify Project.

Listen up! Young people need bespoke family violence services! Illustration by Tash Anderson; do not reproduce without permission.

Family violence continues to be a pervasive, systemic issue in Australia. In Victoria, the need for deep and sustained reform to address this challenge was reflected in the outcomes from the Royal Commission into Family Violence.

Significant progress has been made in implementing these recommendations, however, gaps remain for young people who are experiencing family violence, either in the home or from an intimate partner. This is in part due to:

·       Policy settings that classify ‘children and young people’ as one group, meaning family violence services are not adapted with the developmental needs of young people specifically.

·       Children and young people are often seen as extensions of their parents or carers for the purposes of support.

·       Children and young people who use violence at home, often as a result of their own experiences of trauma, do not have their identity as victim survivors recognised.

The Amplify Project, undertaken by Melbourne City Mission, seeks to understand this gap in policy and services and maps a way forward. The report outlines the findings from the research conducted as part of this project and which has been shaped and guided by the insights of lived expertise.

A snapshot of the key findings

Young people experiencing violence from a parent are often not seen as victim survivors of family violence

Family violence involving young people is often seen through the prism of violence from a male partner or parent against their female partner. The reference to a young person experiencing family violence is most often understood in the context of exposure to family violence and in relation to a child or young person who accompanies their parent to a refuge. There is rarely acknowledgment of the young people who are directly experiencing family violence, in some cases by their mother or sibling, who end up fleeing home without a protective parent.

Violence from a parent against a young person features heavily in our findings. The abuse of power through controlling the young person’s agency due to their age and other factors was also present.  However, support options in this space were largely missing. Young people felt overlooked in the current framings of family violence.

There is a distinct lack of services for young victim survivors of family violence between 15-19

The lack of an appropriate service response is due to a complex mix of lack of clarity on the rights of young people to exercise agency (discussed further below) and the ways in which the family violence, family services, youth services and child protection systems intersect – or rather do not intersect.

While not without its challenges and still being rolled out, there is a system in place for children experiencing family violence through the Orange Door, where specialist family violence, child and family services, child protection and men’s services work collaboratively to assess and refer people with family violence risk.

Young people under the age of 15 years can be placed in supported accommodation with the impacted parent or, as a last resort, in out-of-home care. They can have their family violence risk managed through the specialist family violence service working with the parent. Similarly, there is a service system for adults experiencing family violence through the specialist family violence sector and access to emergency accommodation.

Most child protection and family services are not designed or resourced to work with young people over 15 years. The only service available to these young people are youth and homelessness services, neither of which are designed to manage complex family violence risk.

This service gap means youth services are managing substantial family violence risk. Critically, in practice there is no specialised, family violence case management for young victim survivors that has a focus on their identities as victim survivors. This omission has by no means been by design, and all sectors working with these young people do what they can with what they have. However, it highlights that there is need for a better, more systemic response.

Clarity is needed on the rights of young people so systems and services do not unnecessarily limit their agency

While individual support is important, focus must also be on the external environment that is contributing to the young person’s experience and to the barriers that are impacting their safety and recovery. Structural issues such as access to income support, discrimination, and the need for parental consent to engage with services when the parent is the perpetrator of violence, all form part of a young person’s experience of family violence.

The policy and legal environment for a young person experiencing family violence in Victoria, which includes an intersection of state and federal jurisdiction, can be complex, ambiguous and at times inconsistent, and as a result young people’s agency is often unnecessarily diminished.

A way forward

There is no question that Victoria is better placed than many other jurisdictions in Australia and indeed globally when it comes to family violence reform. However, there remain gaps for young victim survivors of family violence.

A substantial amount of work has gone into laying a strong foundation, however if the development of a youth-specific approach is not prioritised, they will continue to fall through the cracks.

Without proper support, young victim survivors of family violence are more likely to end up in the justice system, become further victimised by family violence or go on to perpetrate family violence, thus compromising the potential of the family violence reform.

Read more in the full report - Amplify: Turning up the Volume on Young People and Family Violence. 

Posted by @SusanMaury