Safe at Home in Geelong
The three-year Safe at Home trial is being delivered in the Geelong and Barwon region from 2025-2028, through a partnership between McAuley Community Services for Women and Meli, with funding support from the Victorian Government.
People experiencing family violence can self-refer into the program or be referred via The Orange Door in Barwon and other professionals.
The Safe at Home team will accept referrals when victim survivors want to stay in their chosen home and community, when there is imminent risk of victim survivors becoming homeless due to family violence and when victim survivors are assessed as being at elevated or serious risk via a MARAM assessment.
As part of the three-year trial, households will be offered long-term case management support that will vary in length depending on the victim survivors’ individual needs. This may range from a period of shorter intervention to longer-term support for up to two years.
Safe at Home can be activated within 48 hours of referral and includes a single case manager for each family member to establish a safety plan and identify immediate and ongoing needs.
It provides victim survivors and people who use violence with access to a large team of legal and financial experts along with wider support specialists in housing, employment, child, and cultural workers to improve engagement and accessibility for CALD communities.
Victim survivors are also able to access support from workers with lived experience of family violence who can support the victim survivor to engage with other services including child protection, health and community services. In addition, the victim survivor will be supported in their capacity to heal and grow.
It is important to note that risk is dynamic, and there may be times where a need to access crisis accommodation is identified.