Specialist support needed for vulnerable women, children
Thank you to BVSC councillors for taking the motion to council.
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I am deeply disappointed the local member Andrew Constance MP has weighed in with old information and started a new political debate about our refuge.
As the convener of the Bega Valley Domestic Violence Committee, I am advocating and raising awareness to enhance interagency responses to women and children who are victims of domestic and family violence.
I want to be perfectly clear this is not a Labor Party campaign and I take offence that this comment continues to be raised in a debate about a flawed NSW Government tender process.
I would like to repeat this is concerned community members and local services advocating for a fair equitable tender process where there is quality support services for women and children escaping domestic violence in our community.
This is a grassroots approach like that used to lobby the government to establish the Bega Women’s Refuge in the 1980s.
I was not stating that Mission Australia is not an outstanding service provider in NSW.
This is not about unhappy service providers being disappointed.
I am advocating for a specialist support staff to run the Bega Women's Refuge.
Our local service provider SEWACS was successful in the tender process and gained a new service in Eurobodalla Shire because of its long history and record of successful specialist support for domestic and family violence victims.
I am informed through a FaCS representative that there were no plans for a refuge in Bega and Andrew Constance himself made an admission in August publically stating the Bega Refuge was an omission from the GHSH tender documents.
Many community services are frustrated with the GHSH reforms because the lack of specialist support available to women escaping domestic and family violence.
I am advocating for qualified and experienced support staff to operate Bega Women’s Refuge and an outreach service to Eden 24/7 (Eden seems to have been forgotten in this whole process).
Bega Valley needs qualified support staff that will deal with requests for help and provide support.
With staffing reduced from 10 to four, I am advocating for more staff to help needy families, women and children.
I have a number of women who are vulnerable due to homelessness or domestic violence, or both, raise their issues with the Women's Resource Centre.
They include lack of caring and support, staff discussing their own personal issues with clients and lack of response.
I can only advocate for better services for women who are “at risk” and in need of specialist care.
I was requesting acknowledgement for the valuable role the Bega Women's Refuge has played in our community for over 26 years.
I thought the BVSC might at least do that, but unfortunately politics is much more important and overrides caring for local people and services - which I believed was BVSC’s role.
I am raising the issue that there is no start date for the refuge to be reopened.
Leading up to Christmas and beyond a very busy time for tourists as well a sad, stressful time for many, with police stating DV is known to escalate at this time.
Unfortunately GHSH has been a flawed process because of its lack of community consultation, lack of representation from the peak bodies and in Bega its omission of the Bega Women's Refuge from tender documents.
This has not been a smooth process and there are issues in our community.
In putting forward the motion to BVSC I was seeking BVSC’s support in giving a voice to the vulnerable women and children in our community who can’t say publically that they need a refuge and more qualified support staff.
Gabrielle Powell, coordinator
Women's Resource Centre
Southern Women's Group