If you would like to get involved with an existing initiative, or believe that you have a community project that we might be able to help with, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Victorian Survivors’ Collective

Community engagement through the Victorian Survivors’ Collective – VSC (formerly the Melbourne Victims’ Collective – MVC) is a key way we enable Survivors to provide feedback, engage with practitioners, government and institutional leaders, and contribute to IGFF’s strategic priorities. We facilitate regular meetings, with support persons in attendance, and can provide more information on request.

Towards Justice: The Charter is an initiative of the Victorian Survivors’ Collective, as the collective of Survivors of primary, secondary, tertiary and systemic abuses outlined their experiences and aims for change. The Charter is based on a number of members’ stories, and aims to raise institutional and public awareness about the mistreatment and ongoing trauma of victims, and to open avenues for dialogue, review and change through processes of restorative justice.

The Collective includes independent practitioners with legal, pastoral, psychiatric and psychological expertise, who have worked with IGFF to provide Survivor-centric research and providing community development and education forums.

Mutual Aid Database

As 2020 changed the way many support organisations deliver services, IGFF responded by partnering with community members and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition to create a Mutual Aid Database of different community groups and mutual aid organisations across Australia.

The mutual aid groups on the database provide informal, community-based ways for people to get involved in helping others and accessing help for themselves. These involve a range of initiatives, from food delivery to social support, but are key grassroots community efforts that came about in response to the Covid-19 public health crisis. As an established organisation, we believe that we are in a key position to support communities on the ground in helping to ensure that vulnerable people do not get left behind.

This database also feeds into the Helpful Neighbours map, which can be useful in locating specific groups in your local area.