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1800 015 188
Available 24/7

Emergency?

Call 000 – If you or are experiencing family violence or are concerned for someone’s safety, call 000 for immediate assistance.

Seeking refuge accommodation?

If you need support or information, call the Safe Steps 24/7 crisis line 1800 015 188. If you don’t feel safe to use the telephone or prefer texting, Safe Steps offers WebChat from 9am – midnight, Monday to Friday.

Contact Information:

For general information and enquiries phone 03 9877 0311

Office hours: 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.

P.O. Box 12
Ringwood, Victoria 3134

Refuge to Recovery for LGBTIQ+ People image

Refuge to Recovery for LGBTIQ+ People

News

This year, Refuge Victoria joined leading LGBTIQ+ community-controlled organisations to develop a program of family violence response specifically for LGBTIQ+ people.

The need for a dedicated LGBTIQ+ refuge response stemmed from research that has highlighted entrenched barriers experienced by those seeking support.

Research presented to the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence revealed that family violence is as prevalent in LGBTIQ+ communities as it is in the general
population, yet only 20 per cent of cases are reported.

As a ‘mainstream’ refuge service, we are aware that at least 11 per cent of our referrals should be LGBTIQ+ people but are not.

People who are LGBTIQ+ experience specific forms of family violence that are different from heterosexual people. In addition to the way violence is commonly used against cis heterosexual women, violence can also focus on a person’s sexuality and gender identity and can take the form of threatening to ‘out’ a person or disclose their HIV status, ridiculing a person’s gender
expression, pressuring, forcing or tricking a person into having unsafe sex, and generally making people feel they deserve the abuse because of their sexuality.

LGBTIQ+ victim-survivors often feel excluded from services and can experience unconscious bias or a lack of skill in identifying and managing their specific needs.

Additionally, the impact of homo/bi/transphobia in religious organisations and police brutality, and the historical criminalisation of homosexuality has had an impact on LGBTIQ+ people and their willingness to access support from the family violence service system.

The lack of knowledge about family violence in LGBTIQ+ communities can cause further barriers or even discrimination. As a result, many LGBTIQ+ people will not choose nor trust mainstream services.

Given the clear evidence presented by this research, Refuge Victoria is currently implementing a new, specialist Family Violence Refuge program in partnership with LGBTIQ+ community-controlled organisations including Switchboard, Thorne Harbour Health (THH) and Family Access Network (FAN), who are part of the Pride in Place consortium.

Refuge to Recovery clients can be referred from any service or by individuals, however in the main we have found that they are primarily referred from LGBTIQ+ community-controlled or specialist services including Thorne Harbour Health (THH) and Switchboard Rainbow Door into dedicated LGBTIQ+ refuge accommodation instead of motels, or from services with dedicated
LGBTIQ+ Case Managers.

Once in refuge, clients are supported by a specialist LGBTIQ+ Case Manager (who is a member of the LGBTIQ+ community) and have priority access to a THH Family Violence and Sexual Violence counsellor. Clients of the program are accommodated in Refuge Victoria
properties and receive all the flexible funding and services available to every refuge client.

We have found an overwhelming need for such a program and were initially swamped with referrals for protective hiding for LGBTIQ+ clients. However, at this point, the program is only able to support three households at any one time with an average stay of eight weeks.

Notably, of those clients we have supported,100 per cent have experienced sexual violence, often in childhood, highlighting the need for therapeutic sexual assault counselling as a critical ingredient for recovery.

A comprehensive program evaluation is currently being completed and preliminary findings have highlighted that the way family violence is used is different, and that more LGBTIQ+ community embedded and co-designed services are needed.

We are pleased that we will be able to continue to offer this small specialist LGBTIQ+ refuge service in partnership with LGBTIQ+ community and specialist LGBTIQ+ staff, through Commonwealth Government funding. However, our findings to date argue strongly
for the expansion of this model.

The Family Violence Refuge to Recovery Program for LGBTIQ+ People partnership was funded through the 2023 Paul Ramsay Foundation Grant Round – Specialist DFV Programs: National Open Grant Round.