After the tragic events surrounding the death of Daniela D’Addario last month and the charging of Josaia Vosikata over her alleged murder, domestic violence has made its way to our local front pages - and community dialogue.

Lifeline Canberra, which is relying on volunteers to provide telephone crisis support to the people of Canberra and surrounding areas, held a two-day accredited training session in Bega recently to educate local professionals to become front-line workers, helping them to identify victims and potential victims of violence.

Lifeline Canberra training manager Tracey McMahon said the course is primarily based on recognising, responding and referring women and children at risk.

“It’s about teaching them the skills and knowledge,” she said.

Eighteen participants from the Bega Valley area participated in the course, coming from a range of community support backgrounds.

“We are training frontline workers who come across women and children,” Lifeline Canberra’s Mandy Larsson said.

Lifeline Canberra helps make up a network that provides 24 hour a day, seven days a week support for those at risk, with many services and private practitioners referring their clients to their service between appointments and after hours.

Earlier this year Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the issue of domestic and family violence would be elevated to be an urgent agenda item for the Council of Australian Governments, led by Australian of the year Rosie Batty.

Ms Batty later criticised the government’s funding cuts of almost $300million to services providing front-line services for women and children fleeing family violence as contradictory, with another round of cuts due on July 1 under new Social Services Minister Scott Morrison.

In NSW, the recent funding reforms have led to reductions in specific and vital refuge and housing services for women fleeing domestic violence.

According to trends in recorded criminal incidents documented by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in November 2014, the rate of state-wide domestic violence related assault is up by 2.7 per cent from 2010.

A report from the same bureau released in January 2015, shows that 120 apprehended domestic violence orders (ADVO) were granted in the Bega Valley in 2013 at a relatively high rate of 360 per 100,000.

Of the ADVOs that were granted, around one in seven were illegally breached, a higher rate than that of the Eurobodalla area, and around the same as areas such as Penrith, Lismore, Narrandera, Tamworth and Wyong.

The report notes that of those found guilty of breaching an ADVO, most were males who entered a guilty plea, and about one in five received a bond without supervision of an average length of 14 months.