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Ongoing
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Family and Reproductive
Rights
Education Program (FARREP) |
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The FARREP Program aims to
improve the
physical and mental health and wellbeing of women and girls from
communities within which the practice of Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM) is known to occur. Program activities include
community education to women and girls from affected communities, and
professional training to local providers. All activities contribute
towards enhancing awareness and understanding of the specific health
needs of women and girls from these communities. |
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Current
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Integrated Family Violence
Services:
the role of WHIN
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WHIN is one of the key
agencies in the
service partnership that has been established in the northern region as
part of the statewide reform of Family Violence services.
WHIN is
working in partnership with Berry Street Victoria - northern region,
Anglicare and Elizabeth Hoffmann House to provide services for women
and children who have experienced or are currently
experiencing
family violence. For comprehensive information on the statewide service
reform click here.
WHIN has two important roles to play in the reform of family violence
services in the northern sub region. WHIN is responsible for
the
regional leadership and service integration and planning role within
region. The key leadership role is to promote, develop and
enhance integrated approaches to Family Violence service provision and
establish and work with the Northern Regional Family Violence Strategic
Network. The Network will:
• maintain an overview of local
community needs and
service trends
• support the development of
successful and
innovative service models
• develop effective
communication strategies with
local mainstream services
WHIN is also the lead agency for the coordination of Ffamily Violence
counselling and groupwork services for women and children. These
services are provided through each of the nine Community Health Centres
in the northern sub region, Berry Street Victoria and
Anglicare.
WHIN is working with these agencies to develop an integrated service
model and maintains an overview of service demand and gaps in services;
and has some capacity to address local training needs. WHIN also
produces a calendar of Family Violence Support Groups that are
operating in the northern sub region.
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Recent
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Local Government Capacity
Building Project
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For the first time in
Victoria, local
government elections were held simultaneously in November 2008. WHIN
worked to make sure that the candidates were aware of issues for women
in their seat. Women's Health In the North, working together with other
women's health organsiations across Victoria, asked Council candidates
to commit to the Safe,
Well and Connected: Victorian Local Government Action Plan for Women's
Health 2008 2012. To read this document click here.
In 2008, a number of candidates committed to this action plan. To see
if your local councillors signed up to Safe, Well and Connected
click here.
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Recent
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Women in Melbourne's
North: A Data Book
for Program and Service Planning in Health
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Women in Melbourne's North:
A Data Book
for Program and Service Planning in Health is a recently published
report that brings together information about women's lives to support
planners in health across the region. The report includes demographic
and health data drawn from a range of sources including the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (2001 Census of Population and Housing), the
Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, the Department of
Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, the Victorian Admitted Episodes
Dataset, the Victorian Burden of Disease Study, the Health Costs of
Violence (VicHealth), Centrelink, and the Perinatal Data Collection
Unit. The report is organised into 11 chapters and is an invaluable
resource for anyone interested in improving the health and wellbeing of
women in their local area. Copies are available form WHIN on request.
Please note that a small postage and handling fee applies. Contact 9484
1666 or write to info@whin.org.au.
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Recent
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Community
Connectedness |
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This program seeks to
improve the health
and wellbeing of women in Melbourne's north by enhancing their
community connectedness through the life stage. The program
has
identified the physical and mental health benefits to women of healthy,
strong community connections, and a number of health promotion
interventions have been developed for implementation in 2006.
One
example of these interventions is a Community Action campaign that will
explore ways of supporting geographically isolated women in the rural
fringe areas of Melbourne's north. Another intervention in
this
area is the Visiting Pets Program, in which isolated women in aged care
facilities are visited by volunteers and their pets.
In October 2006, WHIN launched its report on this issue entitled
Exploring Community Connectedness for Women in Melbourne's North. For
more information please refer to the Resources page of this website.
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Recent
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Information Service
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Since its inception, Women's
Health In the North provided an Information Service for women and
service providers. The service offered access to health information and
services in the region either by telephone, email or visiting WHIN. In
2008 a decision was made to no longer offer this service as a stand
alone program. Information and education to women will now be
integrated into WHIN's Program Priority Areas.
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Recent
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Enterprising Women
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WHIN worked in partnership
with the
Northern Migrant Resource Centre on this exciting multi-faceted project
from 2005 to 2008. Enterprising Women was able to draw on the very
successful micro-credit pilot project implemented by WHIN in 2004 in
partnership with Kildonan Child and Family Services. This project aimed
at providing financial literacy sessions to women from
culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds across the region, as
well as support and training in setting up small (micro)
businesses, with no interest loans available to women completing this
training. Priority was given to women otherwise excluded from
economic and financial participation for a range of reasons. These
included socio-economic status, employment status, ethnic or cultural
background, English language barriers, or a combination of all these
factors. Enterprising Women was funded through the Victorian
Government
Community Support Fund. A web-based Enterprising
Women Best Practice Model
was developed to
serve as a template that may be used by other organisations in the
development of similar programs. For information on the Department of
Planning and Community Development (formerly Department for Victorian
Communities) visit http://www.dvc.vic.gov.au/
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