Inform | Influence | Shape
Provide expertise and leadership on all matters relating to family violence and the family violence service system in the Barwon Area
Welcome to the Barwon Area Integrated Family Violence Committee
The Barwon Area Integrated Family Violence Committee (BAIFVC) provides leadership, advocacy and specialist expertise to strengthen, integrate and improve the family violence response system and help end family violence across Victoria’s Barwon Area. The Barwon Area is defined by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and comprises four municipalities located to the south-west of metropolitan Melbourne. These are the City of Greater Geelong, Colac-Otway Shire, Surf Coast Shire, and the Borough of Queenscliffe.
BAIFVC has representation from specialist family violence services as well as broader cross-sector organisations and alliances whose work intersects with family violence response, early intervention and prevention. Committee members, including the Leadership Group, are all senior leaders involved in strengthening the family violence system and ending family violence in the Barwon Area
Acknowledgement of victim-survivors
The BAIFVC acknowledges the strength and resilience of all victim survivors of family violence regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age and ability. We remember those who did not survive, and acknowledge friends and family members who have lost loved ones. We recognise that our efforts must be informed by the voices and lived experience of victim survivors. We also keep forefront in our minds all those who are experiencing family violence today for whom we undertake this work.
The Barwon Area Integrated Family Violence Committee acknowledges the First Nations Peoples and traditional custodians of the land and waterways across Barwon, the Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation, and the Gulidjan and Gadubanud people of the Eastern Maar Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in the Barwon Area, and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. We recognise the leadership of Aboriginal communities and Elders in Victoria in preventing and addressing family violence, and improving outcomes for Aboriginal people, children, families and communities.
