Women/Families — Staying@Home Program

What we do

Our Staying@Home program provides long-term, ongoing support to women and their families so that they can stay safe in their home after they have left an abusive relationship.

A major risk for women and their families after they have left is homelessness and a loss of their support networks. Research shows that it is not enough to just have legal processes in place to allow women and their families to stay at home, they also need ongoing support.

When women and their families are supported to remain in their home and communities, they are better able to stay connected to their social networks, to maintain work and education opportunities and provide stability for their children—all of which helps in recovery.

How we help

Our team works with women to help them identify and access the support and services they need for their situation. Put simply, we act as case managers; this means we facilitate the whole support process including assessment, planning, monitoring, advocacy and linking people to the support services they need.

On a practical level this might include:

  • undertaking risk assessments
  • developing a safety plan
  • accessing home security upgrades
  • providing information and referral to appropriate services
  • liaising and advocating with relevant agencies, eg. the courts, legal aid, ACT Policing, Real Estate Institute of Canberra and Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service.

What does it cost

These services are provided free of charge.

Contact us

To access our Staying@Home service call our 24/7 crisis telephone line 02 6280 0900.  If it isn’t urgent another contact option is to email crisis@dvcs.org.au; this email is only monitored during business hours. You are welcome to call us reverse charges.  If you live outside the ACT please call 1800RESPECT.

We do not make any sound recordings of our conversations.  You do not need to give us your name, but if you do we make notes that we spoke to you.   If you are unsure, please let us know at the start of the call and we can tell you about our confidentiality policy.