By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A family violence service tailored for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds is floundering in a funding limbo.
Dandenong-based Wellsprings for Women has supported more than 400 women experiencing family violence through its Women’s Support Program over the past two years.
It has received funding one year at a time from the State Government, with the current $380,000 grant set to expire at the end of June.
Wellsprings has requested $500,000 for the next 12 months to meet growing need.
But its funding has still not been confirmed by the Government and Prevention of Family Violence Minister Ros Spence.
“We are not asking for charity,” Wellsprings chief executive Dalal Smiley says.
“We are advocating for the rights of migrant and refugee women to access the service they feel comfortable with.
“We have proved that what we offer fulfils all the requirements of a specialist family violence service. “Now it is up to Government to honor their obligation towards our clients.”
The service is vital for migrant and refugee women who are reluctant to visit mainstream family-violence services, Ms Smiley says.
“Women, who have disclosed to us or done a range of things with us, feel safe coming here.
“We give them that sense of protection because other members of the community and perpetrators don’t know they’re coming here for family-violence support.”
Often, the Orange Door intake service refers women to Wellsprings due to it being the best service model for them, she says.
“The short term funding and the lateness in notification of whether we will be funded or not have a very negative effect on our clients, our staff and stakeholders.
“We are unable to plan, or give our staff the security they need or assure our clients they will continue to be supported.
“We lost staff each year as they needed to secure a job and had to go elsewhere.”
Ms Smiley said she’d prefer to invest her energies on Wellsprings’s clients rather than “lobbying Government”.
“We need the uncertainty to end and for our clients to receive their equal share of public resources. “They deserve to choose the service that meets their needs.”
A State Government spokesperson was contacted for comment but didn’t respond by deadline.
