Family Life provided the backbone function of the Together We Can innovation established with Cardinia Shire since 2015.
Family Life worked with Cardinia Shire Council’s leadership to implement a Collective Impact approach, developed by the Tamarack Institute in Canada, to address the burning need for change to the raising rates of family violence in the shire – and indeed across Victoria.
Collective Impact brings a disciplined and structured approach to working with complex community problems focused on empowering diverse community members to be leaders for change.
Their role has been to harness and build the capacity and capability of the community to design and lead local solutions to stop, prevent and end family violence – and the community has achieved just that.
“We are excited to see the phenomenal decline in family violence that has occurred in our community,” Jo Cavanagh, Family Life CEO, said.
“These are not just numbers, but lives saved through the committed work of groups of people across the community, all working in diverse ways they identified, towards a common vision.
“The receipt of this award affirms the necessity for the work that occurs behind the scenes and we are proud to have had the opportunity to share in the community’s success.
“Working in partnership, we have achieved great things and it is exciting to be transitioning this function now into Cardinia Shire Council to enable the continued and ongoing success of Together We Can.”
Ms Cavanagh said there was still so much more work to do.
“Family Life will remain involved, supporting the success of Together We Can, advocating for more system improvements, and we seek to share learning and the possibilities for community change work in other local government areas,” she said.
