Well-deserved recognition for EveryMan's Partner Contact team, Community Sector finalists at the 2018 ACT Violence Prevention Awards.
From left, Partner Contact Case Worker Erin Leonard, Client Services Manager, Alistair Jones, Partner Contact Case Worker Sandra Rajic and award nominator and EveryMan alumnus Jo Watson.
Erin and Sandra, you are greatly appreciated for the commitment you display every day to supporting partners of our program participants and helping them stay safe. EveryMan thanks you, and now Canberra thanks you.
Partner Contact operates across all EveryMan programs "“ supporting partners, ex-partners & family members of EveryMan clients to address safety needs. Respect, confidentiality and appropriate probity ensure that risk is not increased and safety is improved.
Partner Contact was originally created as an adjunct to our Working With the Man program when the previous partner contact agency, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, was unable to continue that function. Thanks to DVCS for all the pro bono support during those first years of WWM.
The program has been developed using NSW best practice standards and expanded over two years to support the partners of men in any of EveryMan's programs who are at risk of using violence. This has achieved with the assistance of Toora Inc., Lismore Men and Family Centre, Victim Support ACT, Ms Emma Henderson, then principal researcher for the Domestic Violence Prevention Council, Ms Jo Reid, member of the Ngunnawal Elders Council and senior practitioners of EveryMan's Counselling and Violence Prevention Services.
And thanks to Hands Across Canberra, whose grants have provided hugely valued injections of funds at just the right moment.
Sadly, our Violence Prevention Services Coordinator, Simon Port, wasn't able to be up there with them, but we thank him for being the driving force in getting this vital service operational for the partners, ex-partners and families of men using our violence prevention services.
Congratulations too to all the other recipients at the 2018 ACT Violence Prevention Awards: ABC News Canberra, Amaroo School, Doctor Jane Parker, Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT, Jaisiri Australia, Lyneham High School, Menslink, Professor Vanitha Parekh, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, UnionsACT and Veterinary Support for Victims of Domestic and Family Violence.
Finalists or runners-up, everyone there, individual or organisation representative, had one aim in common - to see an end to domestic and family violence in the ACT...
...and the region, and Australia, and everywhere else on the planet.
