SASVic Members Hub
Inclusion and Equity
Specialist sexual assault services are for everyone.
However, there are people in our society who experience additional barriers to seeking help. This page includes helpful resources that support the sector’s inclusion and equity work.
Please email jacqueline.bell@sasvic.org.au, Policy, Equity and Rights Manager, if you have any questions.
> Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
> Language services
> LGBTIQA+ communities
> Multicultural communities
> People with disability
> National strategies
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can access both mainstream services and Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) to get support after sexual violence.
13YARN – 13 92 76 is a crisis support line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Aboriginal Sexual Assault Support Services
Four ACCOs are funded to deliver Aboriginal Sexual Assault Services across five areas. These services provide Aboriginal communities with culturally responsive and safe sexual assault services.
These services are delivered by:
Resources
- Resources to support culturally safe service delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Australian Institute of Family Studies) >
- Social, emotional and cultural wellbeing online resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (WellMob) >
- Truth-Telling at The Centre: An Evidence-Informed Co-Design of a Healing Framework for Koolangka with Complex Trauma (Yorgum Healing Services) >
- See, understand and respond to child sexual abuse kit, Chapter 9: Working with Aboriginal children, families and communities (Family & Community Services, NSW Government) >
- Healing Foundation Reporting – Looking Where the Light Is: creating and restoring safety and healing (Healing Foundation) >
LANGUAGE GUIDELINES
Our words matter: Guidelines for language use (Mindframe) >
A practical resource that informs and supports people to communicate about mental health and wellbeing, mental health concerns, suicide and alcohol and other drugs in ways that minimise stigma and harm.
People with Disability Australia (PWDA) Language Guide >
Written by people with disability, this guide assists people, particularly media outlets, when talking about and reporting on disability.
LANGUAGE SERVICES
Visit the Victorian Government website to learn about language services, including types of interpreting, machine automated interpreting and interpreter credentials.
LGBTIQA+ COMMUNITIES
Resource library
In 2023, the specialist sexual assault sector’s LGBTIQA+ Community of Practice was established. The group developed a resource library, which includes academic research, reports and practice guides and webinars.
SASVic Webinars
SASVic has delivered webinars to support workers in providing inclusive practice for LGBTIQA+ survivors, including:
- Transfemme – Member Services Forum with Zoe Belle Gender Collective
- SASVic’s 2023 LGBTIQ Forum on concepts, myths and inclusive practice
Not Alone group program for gay men: Evaluation Summary
Gay male survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in Victoria face a significant gap in tailored group support. In response, the Not Alone program was initiated in 2024 following strong advocacy from two survivor advocates. SASVic, in collaboration with Sexual and Family Violence Centre, Eastern CASA and South Eastern CASA, developed a pilot program that aimed to create a dedicated, safe and inclusive psycho-education group for gay men who are CSA survivors. This report provides a summary of the evaluation of the Not Alone pilot.
MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITIES
Making the Links Project
Making the Links is a project to link migrant women living in regional Victoria to mainstream family violence and sexual assault services by building capacity on both sides.
Learn more about Making the Links from the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health >
Centre of Advancing Women partnership
Through a partnership with grassroots organisation Centre of Advancing Women, SASVic has explored what factors within the specialist sexual assault sector may contribute to barriers for migrant and refugee survivors of sexual violence in accessing services.
You can read the report, Access to Sexual Assault Services for Refugee Background Women, published by Centre of Advancing Women as part of this partnership. The report includes recommendations for the sector.
Based on this report, SASVic has published a tip sheet for practitioners:
Communicating for Connection: Values-based messaging for primary prevention in multicultural and faith-based communities
Communication for Connection is resource that you can use to create messages that resonate with communities. It was created as a part of Connecting Communities, a partnership between Safe and Equal and Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health.
The resource highlights the role of values-based messaging as a tool to engage community, build trust and address backlash and resistance.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY
Making Rights Reality
Making Rights Reality is a program at South Eastern CASA (SECASA) that provides extra help to adults and children with disability who have experienced sexual violence or family violence. The program aims to make sure people with disability have equal access to counselling, the criminal justice system and the Financial Assistance Scheme. It is available across all SECASA sites.
Learn more about Making Rights Reality >
Easy Read booklets have been developed as part of Making Rights Reality. Easy Read is a communication format specifically designed to make content simple, clear and easily understandable.
- Counselling after sexual assault booklet >
- Crisis care after sexual assault booklet >
- Money to help you after sexual assault booklet >
- Having a health check after sexual assault booklet >
- Common feelings after sexual violence booklet *new* >
- What is grooming? booklet *new* >
- Making the decision to tell someone booklet *new* >
If you have any feedback on these booklets or would like the booklets to display your organisation’s logo, please email comms@sasvic.org.au
Disability Audit Tool
The Disability Audit Tool helps services to reflect on their capacity to create an environment in which disability-inclusive practice can occur, as well as identify barriers to inclusion and plan for their removal.
Learn more about the Prevention of Gender and Disability Based Violence Audit Toolkit >
RFVP Disability Inclusion and Safety Resource Hub
The Regional Family Violence Partnership Resource Hub promotes safety, accessibility, equity and inclusion for people with disability. The Hub is a collaboration between Eastern Regional Family Violence Partnership and the Eastern Region Disability Practice Leader Initiative (FVDPL).
Other useful resources
- Good Practice Guidelines for Engaging with People with Disability (Disability Gateway, Australian Government) >
- Intake is more than a process: Disability, Disclosure and Accessibility (Central Highlands integrated family violence committee) >
- FDV and Disability: Best Practice Guide (Patricia Giles Centre for Non-Violence) >
- Everybody Matters: Inclusion and Equity Statement (Victorian Government)>
NATIONAL STRATEGIES
Changing the Landscape (Our Watch) >
Changing the Landscape is Our Watch and Women with Disabilities Victoria’s national, evidence-based resource to guide the prevention of violence against women and girls with disability.
Changing the Picture (Our Watch) >
Changing the Picture is a set of clear actions that are needed to address the many drivers of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Australia’s Disability Strategy >
Australia’s national disability policy framework. It sets out a plan for continuing to improve the lives of people with disability in Australia over ten years.
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