Barwon CASA / Minerva has a proud history offering therapeutic services to people impacted by sexual assault as well as women and children impacted by family violence across the Barwon, west Melbourne and Wimmera regions.
The organisation also delivers professional training and promotes community awareness for gender equality and respectful relationships.
Barwon CASA/Minerva works closely with the Victorian State Government and other key community support organisations.
The organisation is also leading partner in the establishment of the Barwon Support and Safety Hubs (Barwon Hub), one of five launch sites across Victoria.
A key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Family Violence and the Roadmap to Reform was to create a network of Support and Safety Hubs (Hubs) across Victoria. The hubs will provide women and children impacted by family violence a new, co-ordinated way to access support from community, health and justice services.
The hubs will also focus on perpetrators of family violence to keep them in view and play a role in holding them accountable for their actions and changing their behaviour.
Set to launch in mid-March, the Barwon hub means more jobs for family violence specialists in Geelong.
Along with Family Safety Victoria, Barwon CASA /Minerva is one of the community support organisations to employ staff for the new hub.
By bringing together different workforces and practices, the Barwon hub will create an integrated team and single access point to create a new way of support.
Barwon CASA/Minerva chief executive officer Helen Bolton has welcomed the opportunity to provide additional community services through the hub network.
“Our organisation is pleased to work in partnership with the Victorian government, Family Safety Victoria and local stakeholders in the establishment of the hubs,” Ms Bolton says.
