The Paul Ramsay Foundation has released a report on the impacts of emergency ‘surge funding’ it provided to 33 women’s shelters across Australia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The surge funds provided by the Paul Ramsay Foundation primarily supported the shelters’ crisis response and recovery programs which were constrained and often required modification in response to the increase in demand during the pandemic (for example the capacity of shared accommodation and use of outside accommodation to meet needs).
The funding was deliberately targeted to smaller not-for-profit organisations, in particular women-run, community-embedded and trauma-informed shelters that focused on women and children.
For women and children facing domestic and family violence, the pandemic has presented another barrier to seeking help, another layer of control to be used by perpetrators and further strain on service providers – particularly women’s shelters.
Women’s shelters provide essential emergency services to vulnerable women and children who would otherwise be trapped in abusive households or homeless. Shelters provide immediate accommodation in a crisis, however they also provide additional supports including medium term accommodation, counselling and psychological services, financial support and specialist children’s services.
This project provided an opportunity for the Paul Ramsay Foundation to engage with the sector at a time of great strain to learn from the people at the coal face about the challenges they face in undertaking the important work they do for our community.
Of the 33 shelters, more than 65 per cent used at least part of the funding for accommodation upgrades or purchasing accommodation-related goods, reinforcing that elements of existing accommodation are often unsuitable for the specific needs of children and women leaving domestic and family violence.
In some cases, the surge funds were used to fill gaps where there had been a withdrawal by a previous funder, or for capital works to meet new COVID-19 requirements.
Participating shelters shared insights of their experience in a survey so the Paul Ramsay Foundation could better understand the learning and implications from the rise in domestic and family violence during COVID-19. Representatives from the shelters highlighted four key points:
The Paul Ramsay Foundation has sincerely thanked its partners in this project for their work under extremely difficult circumstances during the pandemic, and for investing their time in the survey which informed the report called “Shelter from the storm: Learning from the rise in family and domestic violence during COVID-19”.
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