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Engender Equality Referral Form

Please complete this form when supporting someone to access Engender’s Therapeutic Services. Once completed it can be uploaded via our Contact Form.

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Engender Equality Submission

Submission to the Inquiry into Tasmanian Adult Imprisonment and Youth Detention Matters - March, 2023

This submission promotes calls for a gendered lens to be applied to imprisonment and detention to consider the unique experiences of women in the Tasmanian Prison System.

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Engender Equality Submission

Submission on the National Principles to Address Coercive Control - November, 2022

Engender Equality and the lived-experience group, Advocates for Change, give feedback on the the development of the National Principles to Address Coercive Control.

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Engender Equality Submission

Submission to the third Tasmanian Family and Sexual Violence Action Plan - May, 2022

Tasmania requires a new Family and Sexual Violence Action Plan that is both strategically directed towards, and sufficiently resourced to deliver, community-based prevention and response activities that meet the needs of Tasmania’s highly dispersed, largely rural, socially and economically disadvantaged population.

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Engender Equality Submission

Submission to the Tasmanian Women's Strategy 2022-2027 - April, 2022

In many ways the draft Strategy achieves its objectives in reflecting critical life domains in which women’s experiences are far from equal – in relation to safety and economic security, for example. In our assessment, however, it falls short of translating these objectives into realisable outcomes for the women we know and work alongside across Tasmanian communities.

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Engender Equality Submission

Submission to the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings - July, 2021

Engender Equality calls for an adequate understanding of the role that organisational culture plays in enabling child sexual abuse in institutional settings and proposes that hierarchical allocation of power within bureaucratic systems reduces the opportunities for individual accountability, with the result of diminished transparency. Our submission has been researched and written by Dr Morag MacSween and is informed by over three decades of experience as a service provider, advocacy organisation and strategic partner in the Tasmanian family and sexual violence sectors.

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Engender Equality Submission

Submission to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability - March, 2021

Developed in conjunction with Dr Morag MacSween, our submission to the Royal Commission focuses on the experience of people with disability in relation to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation caused by family and relationship violence. This intersection is too often invisible in public debate.

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Engender Equality Research

2023 Research Discussion Paper - Misidentification of the Predominant Aggressor in Tasmania

This paper explores how misidentification of the predominant aggressor – also known as ‘misidentification of the primary aggressor’ – occurs when victim-survivors are inaccurately determined to be the predominant aggressor in the investigation into family violence offending. The impacts of this on victims-survivors are described and analysed through the presentation of lived experience case studies.

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Engender Equality Booklet

Love, Sex and Intimacy: Respect and Safety in Relationships

This booklet is designed to help you think about love, intimacy and respectful relationships. It is designed to support conversations and encourage a greater awareness of relationship safety.

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Media Release - Systemic failures devastate lives of family violence victims

MEDIA RELEASE – For immediate release: 17 October 2024

Systemic Failures Devastate Lives of Family Violence Victims

Forum on Systems Abuse in Family and Sexual Violence

Hobart, TAS – The Southern Domestic Violence Coordinating Committee (DVCC) is hosting a crucial forum on systems abuse in family and sexual violence. This event will shed light on the way people who use abuse take advantage of systems and manipulate formal processes to continue their litany of abuse and intimidation.

The forum draws on victim-survivor informed case studies to illustrate the devastating effects of the abuse and discuss ways to improve the support and protection systems in Tasmania.

Systems abuse occurs when the very systems designed to protect and support survivors of family and sexual violence are used to perpetrate harm, often through misidentification, lack of coordination, and a gross misunderstanding on the presentation of family violence. “When our systems fail to understand what family violence actually is, we find people who use abusive behavior manipulate the systems creating a terrible and insidious problem that exacerbates the trauma experienced by victim-survivors. When the systems meant to protect victim-survivors fail, it not only undermines their wellbeing, safety and recovery but also erodes their trust in the justice system,” said Alina Thomas, CEO of Engender Equality.

The forum will bring together key stakeholders, including survivors, advocates, service providers, and policymakers, to address the critical issue of systems abuse. Featured speakers include Zoe Rathus AM, Senior Lecturer at Griffith University Law School, who has extensively published and presented on women and the law, with a focus on the family law system and the impact of domestic and family violence on women and children. Also joining is a representative from the Federal Family Violence Commissioner’s Office, along with Sara Stevens, developer of a comprehensive four-day Family Violence Screening and Assessment training program, now mandated for staff at the Safe Families, Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line and Child Safety Service within the Department for Education, Children and Young People in Tasmania.

The day will cover several critical topics, including the impact of systemic failures on survivors of family and sexual violence, strategies for improving coordination and communication among support services, the role of policy and legislation in addressing systems abuse, and insights from frontline practitioners and researchers.

“Addressing systems abuse is crucial for ensuring that our response to family and sexual violence is effective and compassionate. We must listen to the experiences of victim-survivors as their expertise is essential to our understanding. Then, we must work together, with a whole-hearted commitment to closing the gaps in our support systems and providing a coordinated, survivor-centered approach,” added Ms. Thomas.

The event will take place on Monday, 21 October 2024, at 10:00AM at the Moonah Arts Centre.

Contact: For all media enquiries, please contact: Alina Thomas CEO, Engender Equality

E: ceo@engenderequality.org.au M: 0438 788 291

Photos and interview opportunities are available following the event, 21 October at 1pm – Moonah Arts Centre.