Week Five Sydney

Well, what an interesting and exciting week I’ve had in Sydney.

I had a very funny taxi ride on my way to meet up with Karen Willis from NSW Rape Crisis. It was a very hot day, I was in a taxi, driving through Sydney, the taxi driver, who was from Singapore,  was singing ‘its beginning to look a lot like Christmas”, I just had to join in and sing along. It was a surreal experience.   

It was a very busy week  but  I did have a free afternoon. As you can see, I used the time to visit the Sydney Opera House and took a boat trip to Manly, it was wonderful.

Sorry

I met up with Jane Wangmann, she is a lawyer and an academic she has worked on the VAW agenda and is now a lecturer of family Law at The University of Technology in Sydney. Jane is involved with Care Leavers Australia Network

(CLAN) This is an organisation set up to support people who have suffered childhood sexual abuse in care. She let me have copies of their newsletter, in which there are amazing and very moving case studies of people who have been through public hearings with the Royal Commission. Jane has been really helpful with finding me contacts in Sydney. She also gave me an insight into the potential problems that the Royal Commission could be facing in the future with how they will support the issue redress.

On the second day I met Pia Van de Zandt… wonderful name and wonderful woman. She is the general manager of engagement and support at The Royal Commission into institutional childhood sexual abuse.

I also met with Patrick and Eric and Eric Hudson who are  counsellors at the Royal commission and Sian who is a communications and support worker.

The Royal Commission Site was very impressive, there was a public hearing in progress which was being televised throughout the building. Whilst I was waiting for Pia I could watch the hearing on the TV in the reception area.

They have 10 counsellors who support people in the short term when they are presenting at hearings.

There is currently a White paper being written on what  redress should look like. The paper will cover three points;

1) how much financial compensation should people get, its looking like they will receive between $80 and $100.each.

2) Which agencies will provide the long term counselling.

3) to engage with the institution to ensure their commitment to change.

The Royal commission has a commitment to treat the people who are coming forward to speak at hearings like guests not clients. It seems to make a difference. The case studies I have looked at all mention how well the victims felt they were treated by the commission. I like this idea.

There was some talk of Arch doing some work with The Royal Commission in the future. I will be talking to Pia on my return to see if we can set it up.

I had the amazing opportunity to sit in on a Public Hearing.

The hearings are very different from a court case. There is a culture of believing what the victims say. They are not put under any pressure and don’t have to go into detail about the event if they don’t want to. They are treated as guests.

The hearing I went to was about an Ashram in Auz where abuse of many children happened in the 60’s through to the 80’s . I heard two victims telling their stories of what had happened to them in that Ashram. I listened to what they said and also to the questions from people representing the Ashram and various other people involved. It was a hearing for the victims, no perpetrators were there. After each victim had finished they received a round of applause. It was amazing to witness. I could see that they felt so happy having done it and the validation they felt was tangible in the room.

I Met up with Gavin Rowen, manager of the DPP  Witness Assistance Service. The service is very similar to the one I visited in Melbourne.  They have 30 social workers across the state . 10 are based in Sydney. They have 2 indigenousness workers and 8 workers who are dispersed over the rest of the state. Each worker has 100 clients each, that shows the level of Support that is provided.

Police provide contact details of victims to WAS and they contact the  victim by letter, they

give them details of the trial, provide them with resources i.e. DVD about what to expect at the trial. They may support the victim at trial but only if she is particularly vulnerable and has no family support or she may be handed over to a volunteer.

There is no formal risk assessment done, its up to the individual case worker to decide what level of service is provided to each client.

I Met up with Karen Willis from NSW Rape Crisis .

The centre provides counselling phone line support. They deal with 50,000 calls per year. They are a national phone line. Karen was very clear to tell me that it wasn’t a help line, it was a counselling line.

The 2009 National Government VAW Plan recommended that a national counselling support line was to be established for victims of family violence and SV. NSW Rape Crisis won the tender ($9million dollars) .  They have 90 Staff, 20 of them are counsellors.

NWS RC provide training to; police, DPP and Health workers. They run programmes in schools and youth groups and collages. Some of the programmes are preventative programmes, aimed at young boys. They also do some great work with corporate companies ,they work with high profile clients ( Football players) delivering a changing behaviour  programme, in groups and one to one sessions.

They also train youth leaders to work with young people using the Sexual ethics education programme for young people.

I came away with loads of inspiration and new ideas and some potential amazing opportunities in Sydney for Arch counsellors.

Tell you all about it when I get back.

ff to Auckland now.