In a Victorian first, a partnership of family violence services is working together on a method to analyse data that will give them an accurate picture of the impact of family violence and the use of services in their region.

The Central Highlands Integrated Family Violence Committee (CHIFVC), which includes Women’s Health Grampians will use a $40,000 grant from the Ross Trust to progress its Data Press project to develop a regional family violence spatial data portal.

In line with recommendation 203 of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, Data Press will improve the way the local government areas of Ararat, Ballarat, Hepburn, Golden Plains, Pyrenees and Moorabool, collect, share and analyse family violence data.

CHIFVC is a cross-section of organisations in the Central Highlands region, working together to help keep women and children safe.  Membership includes primary prevention through to response, treatment and recovery: specialist support services, health services, legal, education, and justice.

Pennie Mathieson, Principal Strategic Advisor for CHIFVC says this approach to data collection, analysis and sharing has been used in other sectors, but this will be the first time that this approach has been adopted and used in the Victorian Family Violence Sector. The project is focussed on data challenges which are systemic across Victoria, and therefore could prove to be scalable and transferable to other regions.

“The CHIFVC is showing leadership by developing a pro-data culture in the region and ensuring that strategic and operational decisions are grounded in data and evidence,” Pennie said. “The data will help us to gain a comprehensive understanding of the people accessing services.  This will assist us to ensure appropriate and effective service provision, particularly for marginalised groups.  We also expect to gain a clearer understanding of service sector demand and the impact of family violence on our community.”

The Family Violence Committee was first established as part of the Victorian Government reforms of the family violence service sector in 2006. Since the release of the Royal Commission into Family Violence report in 2016 the CHIFVC has grown significantly in its membership and breadth of work.

Pennie says a recent major achievement of the CHIFVC is the establishment of a family violence cross-sector Community of Practice in the Central Highlands region. “The CHIFVC hosts regular cross sector events across the six Local Government Areas, whereby up to 80 participants come together in a shared learning environment to foster cross-sector collaboration and develop a shared understanding of family violence in order to improve family violence responses.”

Visit the CHIFVC website for more details of their work.