Welcome to our July newsletter. This month, we take the opportunity to reflect on the year so far, and provide updates to our recent activities.
The IGFF team continue to provide crucial support and advocacy work remotely, and if you have any specific questions about our work or anything in this email you can get in touch with us on (03) 9940 1533 or by emailing [email protected].
As our office is based in Victoria, we continue to follow government guidelines closely, which now include wearing a face covering when in public. To find out more about this, you can read the Department of Health and Human Service’s online guide.
Reflections on the First Half of 2020
As we enter the second half of 2020, it’s a good opportunity to share some reflections on what the IGFF team have achieved in the year so far.
As a National Redress Scheme Support Service, our federal government funding has been renewed for the second half of 2020. The Foundation will continue to demand accountability and more Survivor-centric processes for those on the journeys to justice and healing, and provide our essential client support services.
Client Support and Advocacy
Despite restrictions on being able to provide face-to-face service throughout much of 2020, our team has worked hard to ensure that everything continues remotely. Their hard work and dedication has enabled IGFF to respond to Survivors in a more comprehensive and varied way than ever before.
Our face-to-face client outreach, when not under Covid-19 related restrictions, has expanded enormously, and has included visits to regional Victoria. We have also built capacity to resource clients’ access to local supports and practical welfare, including linking with council services for aged care and local foodbank programs.
With the three case workers Ingrid, Hannah and Ruairi joining the Foundation in early 2020, staff specialisation now includes experience and expertise across gender and family violence, disability support, addiction recovery services, education, service reform, family services, child protection, domestic violence and family health. All staff have also received extensive training while at IGFF, with a particular focus on trauma-informed care practices and vicarious trauma support.
For many people, the public health crisis has and may continue to cause some anxiety. Along with information about coping strategies, our team have ensured that people receive the extra, regular support as they need it.
Client interactions over the past twelve months
The kind of sessions recorded in IGFF’s reporting over the past six months
Systemic Advocacy and Community Engagement
Along with our outreach program and individual client work, IGFF continue to lobby for systemic change. This has included working in areas of legislative reform, policy development and event coordination. All of the Foundation’s broader community and social advocacy is shaped by feedback from clients and case workers, in the process of working towards Survivor-centric systemic change.
We have been working with a range of community groups and organisations, and have welcomed staff members with expertise in policy and advisory work, in particular Joe as Head of Government Relations & Media Communications.
Through initiatives like the Mutual Aid Database, which acts as a directory of online community support groups, organised by Hannah, our team have responded to the public health crisis in innovative and urgently required ways. We also continue to provide consultancy work and assistance on memorial projects in a Survivor-led capacity.
With a more diverse partnership network, and more ways of connecting Survivors and communities to resources and ways of making their voices heard than ever before, the Foundation’s individual client work and systemic advocacy continue to complement each other.
Recent News Updates
Last week, Vincent Ryan was released from prison. He remains a Catholic priest. In the words of IGFF CEO Clare Leaney: “It is inconceivable to any reasonable person that members of the clergy, who are convicted of heinous crimes against children, are not automatically defrocked.
Survivors of institutional abuse are again reflecting on the tremendous trauma of the past and ongoing pain of the present. Today, as with every day, we stand with you and we honour your courage.”
In other recent news from the Catholic Church, it has been announced that the Catholic Professional Standards Ltd (CPSL) will close at the end of this year. The CPSL was formed in 2017 to set standards within the Church for child safety, and then audit and report on compliance with these standards, in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Since the agency was seen as the bearer of reform, this decision has been widely criticised as its work is now expected to be done largely ‘in-house’ with no accountability.
With the deadline for institutions to announce their intentions to join the National Redress Scheme now passed, the Jehovah’s Witnesses remain the only national organisation that has refused to do so. This news is devastating for many Survivors.
IGFF’s thoughts this month have been with all Survivors of institutional abuse who are facing further denial from those responsible.
We stand in solidarity with SaySorry.org, JW News and their campaign for a better future for Survivors. Say Sorry’s report can be read online, which outlines how the Jehovah’s Witnesses also refuses to say sorry, meet with survivors, or adopt any Royal Commission recommendations.
This article also combines a number of recent investigations to discuss the impact that this choice is already having on Survivors, families and communities across the country.
