Family Violence Learning Series
For professionals working with children and young people affected by family violence.
What is the Family Violence Learning Series?
Children and young people carry many more of the costs domestic and family violence than we acknowledge as a society – they are harmed by seeing and hearing violence and its effects, by the effects of coercive control and the relational dynamics set up by perpetrators of violence, by the impacts of their mother’s stress and distress. Their development is adversely affected by it, and they struggle to make sense of why the violence occurs and what it means.
Children and young people need responses that ensure they are safe in an enduring way. They need support to be able to make sense of how the violence has shaped their interactions and how it continues to influence what they know to be true about relationships. They need the people around them to offer them comfort and hope. Children and young people need to come to know that their own identity and life will not be defined by the violence.
The Australian Childhood Foundation has provided specialist trauma integrative family violence therapeutic services to children, young people and their families and carers for over two decades. Our pioneering work in this area has been recognised nationally and internationally.
This webpage is an interactive and evolving learning series on family violence for practitioners – including those working in family violence services, counsellors and therapists, schools, healthcare programs, accommodation and mental health services – seeking resources to support effective, evidence-informed, trauma-responsive practice to support children and young people affected by family violence.
Start here: Safe and Secure Practice Guide
The Safe and Secure Practice Guide is a trauma informed practice guide for understanding and responding to children and young people affected by family violence. It can be used by individuals, teams or whole workplaces. The guide talks about the impact of family violence on children and young people, and ways that adults can support healing and growth by meeting the needs of affected children. The Practice Guide was developed by Australian Childhood Foundation in partnership with the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Family Violence Partnership.
DownloadSPECIAL WEBINAR SERIES:
In 2023 we recorded a limited series of live webinars, each lasting an hour, on a range of family violence topics.
Each of these webinars can be viewed by joining the Trauma Professionals Online Learning Community.
A safe and inclusive resource library and discussion forum, membership (and access to resources) is free for the first month. After the trial, you will be invited to continue your subscription at a cost.
Join now, and access the following webinars, and so much more:
- Children and their experience of family violence
Learn practical approaches and hear from other practitioners about what works when providing family violence support oriented towards the needs of children and young people. - Storytelling as a tool to heal from family violence
Learn how storytelling can offer a tool for children and young people to connect and heal from family violence, in therapeutic and other settings. - Coercive control and its impact on children
Learn more about the impacts of coercive control among children and young people, and how we can provide support to those affected. - Working with fathers who engage in violent behaviour in the context of family violence
Learn more about trauma-informed ways to resource the needs of children affected by family violence through working with fathers who engage in violence towards women and children.
More resources
Join the community
The Trauma Professionals Online Learning Community is an exclusive forum for like-minded professionals seeking curated content on childhood trauma, family violence and healing, as well as opportunities to engage and learn with other members.
Access a free* one-month trial and gain access to exclusive resources, while connecting and learning together to improve practice with children, young people and families affected by trauma. After the trial, you will be invited to continue your subscription at a cost of $8 per month or $72 per year (inc. GST).