Creating Safety

We have been supporting a family consisting of two children, aged 8 and 10, who live with their mum. The family was referred to us by DCJ (Department of Communities and Justice) to help create safety and support their healing and recovery from severe domestic and family violence (DFV), which their mum endured for over 20 years.

Although mum and dad have been separated for years, he continues to visit the family home uninvited, claiming it is to see the children. During these visits, he uses the opportunity to be abusive and derogatory toward mum. Dad has a history of violence and criminal behaviour, including a conviction for drug trafficking. Despite being sentenced to prison, he miraculously received bail. After his release late last year, he repeatedly breached the AVO (Apprehended Violence Order) by visiting the home and disregarding its conditions.

The referral to Jannawi came after another local service provider, funded to work with DFV cases, withdrew due to the high level of risk posed by dad’s behaviour.

In the initial weeks of working with the family, we focused on helping mum understand that DCJ’s intervention was solely about addressing her ex-partner’s harmful behaviour. Mum, who was deeply fearful that engaging with authorities would result in her children being removed, began to open about dad’s ongoing threats and intimidation.

We worked with mum to identify dad’s patterns of manipulation and lies, which he used to maintain control and continue causing harm. With our support, mum took several significant steps toward protecting herself and her children:

• She attended the police station to make a formal statement about the violence and obtained an AVO for the first time in years.
• During a weekend incident when dad refused to leave the family home, mum called the police to intervene.
• Initially hesitant about us contacting dad, she later agreed. We arranged a meeting with him at the DCJ office. Although he initially agreed, he later refused to attend without his lawyer present.

We worked closely with the DCJ caseworker, who spoke directly with dad about the child protection concerns and emphasized the importance of complying with the AVO and staying away from the family.

In parallel, we supported the children by discussing our concerns and making it clear that dad staying away was a decision made to ensure their safety.

As of now, dad has been staying away from the family, and his bail review is scheduled for later this week. Mum has stopped answering his calls and, for the first time in years, doesn’t feel guilty about prioritizing her and her children’s safety. She shared that she hasn’t felt this safe in a very long time and finally feels like she can begin living her life.