- The Women’s Centre in Townsville will receive an additional $2.8 million in funding.
- This includes $1.98 million to enhance the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) to meet growing demand and expand their service to more areas.
The Women’s Centre provide hands on support for women experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) as well as women at risk or experiencing homelessness and financial hardship in the North Queensland region.
Last year, the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce released Hear her voice – Report Two, outlining 188 strong recommendations to improve women’s experiences across the criminal justice system and better protect women and girls as victim-survivors of sexual violence.
The Palaszczuk Government accepted all recommendations and announced an additional $225 million over five years to support implementation of the recommendations made in Report Two.
In response to the recommendation to fund and implement a victim-centric, trauma informed service model for responding to sexual violence, $2.8 million will go to the Centre and their Sexual Assault Response Team (SART).
This funding will support the Service to support more women and expand the wrap around, trauma-informed service it provides to victim-survivors of sexual assault to more regions.
The aim of the Women’s Centre’s SART model in Townsville is to provide victims of sexual assault with coordinated, inter-agency, holistic responses from the health system and the criminal justice system.
The specialist team supporting victims of sexual violence in Townsville comprises Social Workers from the Women’s Centre Sexual Assault Support Service, detectives from the CPIU (QPS), nurse examiners from the Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit (QH), and medical and allied health staff from the Townsville Hospital and Health Service (QH).
Funding provided to The Women’s Centre will help to further engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have experienced sexual violence.
Quotes attributable to the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Yvette D’Ath:
“The Palaszczuk Government is committed to the safety of women and girls across the state.
“This additional funding for the Centre and their Sexual Assault Response Team will help so many more women and girls on their road to recovery.
“It will enable outreach services into areas around Townsville and provide trauma-informed and culturally appropriate responses for people who have experienced sexual violence.
“The Taskforce’s report has shone a light on the experiences of victim-survivors of sexual violence and women and girls in the criminal justice system in our state.
“I would like to thank the hundreds of brave survivors who came forward and shared their lived experience with the Taskforce during the review.”
Quotes attributable to Mundingburra MP Les Walker:
“This funding is going to help victim-survivors navigate the support services available to them.
“Victim-survivors of sexual assault need our support and the Townsville team’s model will coordinate help from socials workers, nurse examiners from Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit and police officers.”
