Capacity building
8.7.1 Barriers to effective practice
The administrative and governance capacity of Mudgin-Gal is stretched at times due to a lack of training and resources. There have also recently been significant staff and leadership changes at Mudgin-Gal. Dixie Link-Gordon, who acted as CEO for a number of years, resigned at the end of 2013. There was a delay in appointing a new CEO and in this period Mudgin-Gal closed for a period of time. As a consequence, there was disruption to the delivery of the Healthy Family Circle program and the service more generally:
… we’re not always, although we like to, we would like to be in a position to act in any emergency, if anything happens, we’re not always in that position. (Mudgin-Gal representative)
There have been gaps in having a facilitator of the Healthy Family Circle program, in part because of the difficulty recruiting people to the position:
There aren’t that many Aboriginal women trained to run groups and so that’s part of the work that I’ve wanted to do, to actually build the skills of the person that’s been employed. (Relationships Australia representative)
These issues have had an impact on how the program is facilitated:
I don’t think that there’s enough time, in terms of preparation for the program itself. I mean like there was no handover for me and the previous worker so you know I picked it up and ran that same week so I think in doing that I was lucky enough that I could do that. (Mudgin-Gal representative)
I think that the program needs to be extended to maybe ten weeks’ worth of running the weekly programs with more outcomes, I think that, you know, which I’m working towards is getting some training for working, you know what I mean, ‘cos some of these women have never worked, wouldn’t know the first thing about a tax file form and all of that kind of stuff that’s just a given, you know, timesheets and every workplace is different and just—just those things that the everyday worker sees as a norm, you know these are young mums who pretty much from school have become mothers and just that’s all they’ve pretty much known,. So there’s no formal training in that and self-esteem building around that as well. (Mudgin-Gal representative)
The impacts of the program are long-term for participants, and the benefits of delivering programs are also cumulative for Mudgin-Gal:
And things like the Healthy Family Circle, it kind of goes in a cycle and you know, grows in knowledge and mentoring it’s a slower process … So I think the impact of that is probably seen today of those seven, eight, ten years ago … perhaps in the way women … [are] making better decisions in their families and for their families. (Mudgin-Gal representative)
8.8
Conclusion
At a broad level, the findings from the evaluation of Mudgin-Gal’s Healthy Family Circle program indicate the program is consistent with the features of effective practice identified in the literature on DFV primary prevention and program implementation for Aboriginal peoples. In particular, the Healthy Family Circle program demonstrates key elements of effective practice such as being community driven, community owned, and responsive to the needs of its user group—at this stage, Aboriginal women with young children. The program is also consistent with the community-strengthening focus of the Indigenous- specific outcome of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children. Features such as the use of “soft entry” points for engaging with women and offering broader opportunities to build skills and capacity also seem to be key elements of effective practice in this context.
As was described in chapter 4, the socio-ecological theory of DFV acknowledges that there is no single factor to explain DFV. Rather, violence is determined by a complex interplay of multiple and interrelated factors at four levels of influence; individual, family, community and society (Casey & Lindhorst, 2009; Dahlberg & Krug, 2002; Dutton, 1985; Heise, 1998; Quadara & Wall, 2012; WHO, 2010). Further, it is widely recognised in the literature that effective DFV prevention has universal and targeted elements. For example, WHO acknowledges that “dismantling the hierarchical constructions of masculinity and femininity” and eliminating inequality, are long-term, challenging goals (2010, p. 36) and recognises that these broader macro strategies should be complemented by “measures with more immediate effects”. This is perhaps especially pertinent for women who are at higher risk of experiencing DFV.
For many Aboriginal women these shorter-term protective factors include strengthening cultural bonds and connections to community, enhancing knowledge about DFV and services, improving self-esteem and personal capacity and strengthening community capacity. The insights from the interviews with participants in the program reinforce the community need for programs like Healthy Family Circle. The program plays an important role in reducing isolation, supporting community and cultural connections and increasing the capacity of participants to engage effectively with other services and agencies. The continuing impact of an entrenched lack of trust of mainstream and government services among Aboriginal people—based on the past history of removal of children and contemporary over-representation of Aboriginal children in child protection systems— cannot be over-emphasised. The participants interviewed for this evaluation clearly expressed a need for support of their parenting to be provided in a safe and culturally appropriate way. The benefits of strengthening parenting capacity and reducing isolation through connection to community and culture has direct benefits for the children of the participants, who also have their own social and cultural engagement supported through the childcare that is provided when their mothers attend the group. The evaluation data
also suggest that Healthy Family Circle supports capacity building, with engagement in the program operating in some circumstances as an initial step in supporting engagement in further study and work.
As such, although it is important to acknowledge that the Healthy Family Circle program is not explicitly or solely focused on preventing DFV and there are no data to show whether or not it directly reduces the incidence of DFV in those who participate, the approach is supported by the literature and is consistent with evidence-based practice.