McAuley Community Services for Women (McAuley) is leading the development and implementation of the Safe at Home approach to family violence in Victoria.
McAuley has a long and proud history of advocating for the removal of systemic barriers that inhibit the ability of women and children to live safely. Led by CEO Jocelyn Bignold OAM, McAuley challenges the status quo, influencing policy and system change to ensure the best solutions to help more people quickly and comprehensively. After years of advocacy, McAuley was granted $6 million in the 2024 Victorian Budget to implement a three-year Safe at Home trial.
For more than 35 years, McAuley has helped women, children and young people who have faced family violence and homelessness take control of their lives and build a brighter future. McAuley’s founders opened Victoria’s first 24/7 family violence refuge in Melbourne in 1987. Today McAuley operates sites and services from inner Melbourne through the western corridor to Ballarat.
Most of the women and children McAuley works with are at immediate risk of serious harm through physical and emotional violence, threats, sexual assault and stalking. McAuley works at the intersection of family violence, homelessness and mental health, providing 24/7 support 365 days a year, as well as temporary accommodation, independent housing and supported community care.
McAuley’s programs are uniquely holistic, recognising the complexity of the needs and experiences of the individuals they support. McAuley works closely with partners to provide wrapround care, bringing together health, legal, financial, education, accommodation and recreational responses.