The Sharing WISDOM project

What is the Sharing WISDOM Project?

Multicultural community services regularly support migrant and refugee women who are experiencing family violence, but we do not understand how well they are included in the rest of the family violence service system. We want to talk to migrant and refugee women, multicultural community services workers, and family violence practitioners so that we can come up with a shared understanding of how multicultural community services can be successfully included in the family violence response system to better support women experiencing family violence.

Why is this project important?

Family violence is a very serious issue, and we know that women who have resettled in Australia can’t always find the help they need. Migrant and refugee women know best about the type of support they need and it’s important that researchers listen to them. Findings from the research project may be used by multicultural community services and specialist family violence services to deliver family violence services that better meet the needs of victim survivors from migrant and refugee communities.

Who is involved?

Sharing WISDOM is a collaborative research project. It is being run by the University of Melbourne, the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH), and Whittlesea Community Connections. It is being funded by Family Safety Victoria.

How will the research be conducted?

We will use different ways to understand how multicultural community services can be successfully included in the family violence system to better support women experiencing family violence. These include interviews and focus groups with service providers, and interviews with migrant and refugee women who have been supported by a multicultural community service.