Sunday, June 30, 2013

HUGE news in today's Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Congratulations to the NSW State Government and Minister Goward for having the courage to acknowledge that one in three victims of family violence are male and for starting to make services available to them.

The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 30 Jun 2013, p32.

Male victims of domestic violence are set to be granted access to services previously only available to women. NSW Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward will today announce new support for male victims of domestic violence. The support will include a time-limited private rental subsidy previously offered by Housing NSW to female victims and their children. Ms Goward said the move followed evidence that around one-third of all domestic violence cases were men. The Start Safely program allowed victims to be sheltered temporarily while they worked towards finding alternate accommodation. "Start Safely helps victims of violence by providing short to medium-term financial assistance to clients to rent alternative accommodation in the private rental market, while they get the support they need," Ms Goward said. Men will be able to apply from June 24.

Download the source article here.

Download more information about the Start Safely program here.