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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/61454
- Title
- Supporting children made homeless by family violence
- Author(s)
- Spinney, Angela
- Abstract
- Most of the women who enter homeless accommodation due to family violence have accompanying children, and as a result, the majority of those living in refuges are aged under eighteen. Historically the long-term impact on children of living in violent households has been neglected compared to the impact on their mothers (Mullender and Morley, 1994). It is now known that living with family violence can affect children's emotional and cognitive development and that one in four children who have witnessed family violence have serious social and behavioural problems. In addition, for children the homelessness that so often results from leaving situations of violence brings trauma and affects routines and friendships. Such children are more likely to experience homelessness as adults (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2007). However, research has shown that a ‘front-line’ response, in a non-therapeutic environment such as a homeless refuge, can have a beneficial impact on the long-term prognosis of children. The paper details the results of the Safe from the Start project, which was commissioned by the Commonwealth government for the year 2007-08, and further funded by the Early Years Foundation during the current year. This Salvation Army project attempts to address the imbalances in the ways that the needs of adult and child clients are catered for in the homeless system, and in doing so has enabled a unique opportunity for the refuges across Tasmania to work collaboratively on a research project.
- Publication type
- Conference paper
- Source
- Paper presented at the 2009 Housing Researchers Conference, incorporating the Asia Pacific Network of Housing Research (APNHR) Conference and the Australasian Housing Researchers Conference (AHRC), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 05-07 August 2009
- Publication year
- 2009
- FOR Code(s)
- 120501 Community Planning; 160514 Urban Policy; 160702 Counselling, Welfare and Community Services
- Keyword(s)
- Australia; Children; Domestic violence; Early Years Foundation; Family; Government policy; Government support services; Homelessness; Impact of family violence; Refuges; Safe from the Start project; Salvation Army; Tasmania
- Publisher
- Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
- Publisher URL
- http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/cf/apnhr/conferenceinfo/
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2009.
- Peer reviewed
