Exciting new partnership with Youthlaw!
The CIJ is thrilled to kick off its partnership and co-location with Youthlaw with a new project looking at early intervention support for young people who use or experience family violence.
Announced last week by Victoria’s Attorney-General Jill Hennessy and the Legal Services Board, Youthlaw and CIJ will receive funding for a two-year project enabling us to explore and test early family violence legal and non-legal support options for young people who use or experience violence.
The project is based on the premise that giving young people earlier specialised support from a lawyer and youth worker will be less stressful, and give them a more positive and participatory experience of court, as well as improving safety and personal outcomes. The project will enable Youthlaw to recruit a lawyer and a social worker to provide earlier, multidisciplinary pre-court legal support. The CIJ will conduct the research and evaluation component of the project. This will explore young people’s experiences and promote the need for them to feel heard and contribute to project design solutions.
Project design and referral pathways to early, pre-court supports will be developed in close and collaborative consultation with critical stakeholders, including the Melbourne Registry of the Children’s Court of Victoria, Victoria Police, Victoria Legal Aid and Orange Doors (Family Safety Victoria).
This project also builds on the research and findings of the PIPA Project – on which we’ll have more to say in the coming months, with release of the final report slated for early next year.
