Crisis Support

Community Action Domestic Violence Support Team are here to help you when domestic abuse is affecting your life. Please call us on 5413 8088 or on 5482 7973 to access support.

Support services can refer clients to our service for support by completing the GRDFVS Referral for Women’s Counselling and emailing it to us on cai@communityactiongympie.com.au

A listening ear – People who have never experienced an abusive relationship can find it hard to understand how abuse can confuse you, make you doubt yourself, make it difficult to think about what to do to try and end the abuse. Our team has lots of experience in working with domestic and family violence and we offer a completely non-judgemental and confidential support service. We will never tell you what you should do, but we will provide a space for you to work out what you would like to do.

Safety Planning and Risk Assessment – Whether you are planning to stay in a relationship that is sometimes abusive and want some help with this, or whether you are thinking about ending the relationship and need to plan to leave safely, it is very important to have a plan about your safety from the abuse. Our practitioners can help you to look at the abuse you are experiencing and assess the risks of future abuse. We can support you to think about your options and link you to the resources that are available to help you. For more information on Safety Planning click here.

Safety Interventions – when we work with you to think about your risks, we can also offer some specific support for your safety. For women who are able to continue to live in their own homes we can offer Home Security Safety Upgrades like security screens, changed locks or security cameras that make your home safer for you and your children. If your phone has been damaged or stolen, or you think it is used to track your communications or movements, we can supply you with a Safe Phone which comes with some credit. Other Safety supports may be offered in regard to your specific circumstances and risks.

Refuge – For some women, staying in a Women’s Shelter or Refuge, is a necessary step in staying safe. Our team can help you to think about whether refuge will be helpful to you and help to get you to safety. If you would like more information about Refuge click here.

Getting a Domestic Violence Protection Order and support at Domestic Violence Court – A Domestic Violence Protection Order is designed to protect you, your children and other people named on the order from a person who is abusive towards you. The order can have specific conditions to stop behaviour that impacts you and makes you unsafe. Our team can help you to apply for an order or to vary or extend an existing order. We can help with preparing material to provide to the court and can link you to legal advice. For more information about the court process and about the support we can offer click here.

Working with Police, Child Safety, Centrelink and other agencies – sometimes when you are experiencing domestic or family abuse other agencies can become involved. When police attend an incident of abuse at your home, or when a notification is made to Child Safety that your children may be experiencing violence, this sometimes can feel scary and intrusive, particularly if you are seen as the person using violence (although this may not be true). Our team can support you in interactions with other agencies and ensure that they understand the effect of the abuse you have experienced. If you want us to, we can advocate for you about what course of action you believe would be best and safest for you and your children.

Legal Advice – A range of solicitors offer a free legal advice session to women using our service. If you would like to obtain some legal advice please talk to our team about booking an appointment. We will need to get your full name and date of birth as well as the other parties full name and date of birth. We will also need to give the solicitor some idea about the matter you would like advice about. Women often obtain advice about Family Law, property settlement and financial abuse, criminal matters as well as domestic & family violence.

Support we can offer

Risk Assessment

We can assess your risks with you and develop a plan to keep you safe. Risk assessment is the process of estimating and regularly reviewing the likelihood and nature of a risk posed by a perpetrator to the victim, children or others.

Home Safety Upgrades

We can assist in changing locks, installing security screens or supplying security cameras. If your home is rented, we will need signed approval from your landlord prior to commencing any work.

Safety Planning

If you are thinking about leaving, it is very important to have a safety plan which we can assist you with. This would include discussions about keeping your normal routines and activities, so the perpetrator doesn’t guess you are planning to leave.

Safe Phones

If your phone has been damaged, stolen or you think it is used to track your movements, we can supply you with a safe phone which we can activate for you and comes with Telstra credit and data.