Dear All – welcome to the July newsletter. We are now in the next funding year for the Network, which means putting in the Annual Activity Report to our funding body. The Steering Committee is meeting on 27 July to finalise this, so if you have any proposals for cross-sector training or projects which meet the objectives of the Network (namely to improve collaboration between professions in the family law sector), please contact me as soon as possible.
In this newsletter, you will find service updates, information about local professional development opportunities and programs, new resources and national conferences. As always, any local training referred to will be included on the NTCOSS work training calendar.
If there is anything you think should be included, or any changes needed, please email me on pathways@ntlac.nt.gov.au.
Our next Network meeting is on Tuesday 2 August at 12.30 pm at the NT legal Aid Commission 5th floor conference room. Please RSVP to pathways@ntlac.gov.au for catering purposes as lunch is provided. Hope to see you there!
Cheers, Natalie
SERVICE UPDATES
Anglicare Resolve has resumed it’s Family Dispute Resolution (mediation) service. If you have clients who may be interested in undertaking family mediation they can make an appointment, or simply gain further information by calling 8946 4800. Resolve is located at Unit 1/5 Goyder Parap and opening hours are 8:30am – 5:00pm Mon-Fri.
The Family Duty Lawyer Service will now be provided by the NT Legal Aid Commission’s Family Law Section. For the past two and a half years NTLAC has provided the service as a stand-alone section, separate from the Family Law Section. Access and guidelines remain unchanged.
WHAT’S ON
HAPPY FAMILIES SUPPORT PROGRAM – Multicultural Council of the NT/Catholic Care NT
Next session 29 July 2016 from 4.30 pm – 7 pm. MCNT Community Room, Malak. Ph: 8945 9122 for more information.
FREE MIGRATION ADVICE – First Wednesday of each month 5 – 8 pm (by appointment)
Advice from registered migration agents. Multicultural Council of the NT Hall, Shop 15, Malak Shopping Centre. For appointment ph: 8945 9122
LOCAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
YMCA Child Safe National Conversation (webinar) on the 15th July (see attached flyer).
Safe in Oz: ‘An Introduction To Working With Individuals Who Have Self-Destructive Behaviour’ a 2 day workshop in partnership with Headspace in Darwin – 14th & 15th July 2016 (see registration flyer).
Webinar Tuesday 19 July 1 – 2 pm (our time), “Building a better outcomes framework for families: A story from the Mallee”. Presenters: Fiona Harley and Jon Myer. This webinar will tell the story of the relationship between Mallee Family Care (MFC) and Social Ventures Australia (SVA), and how they worked in partnership with key agency and community stakeholders to develop outcome measures. More
Technology Facilitated Abuse: FREE workshop 26 July 2016, Darwin A FREE two-hour workshop—technology-facilitated abuse and its relationship to domestic and family violence (see attached flyer).
A ‘Trauma Informed’ Service: 28 July 2016 8:30am – 4.30pm Melaleuca Refugee Centre
This workshop looks at trauma from an organisational approach and perspective. The training considers why it is necessary to incorporate trauma informed practice into your organisation’s functioning, policies and procedures. By the end of the day you will know what it means to be ‘trauma informed’, and how its core principles of safety, collaboration, empowerment, trustworthiness and choice, can be integrated into the way you operate.
This course is people such as human resource staff, managers, policy makers and service provider staff. It is recommended that individuals complete the Trauma Toolkit workshop (or have a working knowledge of trauma biology) before attending this course.
Cost: $160.00. Lunch and USB of presentation and resources will be provided. For further information please contact training@melaleuca.org.au or register directly at http://www.melaleuca.org.au/referral-services/community-development/education-training-program/#training5
Love Bites Junior Respectful Relationship Facilitator session (NAPCAN)
Cost: $200 per person When: 9th November 2016, 9am-4pm
Where: Training Room, Australian Red Cross Head Office, CASCOM Centre, Stage 3, Level 1, 13 Scaturchio Street, Casuarina NT 0810
See attached flyer or book online.
NATIONAL CONFERENCES
The Australian Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Third Annual Conference: Assessing and determining children’s best interests in the flood of family violence claims. 18 to 20 August 2016, Brisbane. http://afccnet.org.au/afcc-2016-conference/
The Australian Chapter of AFCC has been formed to bring together Australian Family Law professionals including judicial officers, lawyers, psychologists, social workers, other mental health professionals, mediators, educators, researchers, academics, welfare groups and administrators to share in formal and informal opportunities for education, training, research and professional collaboration. This is the Australian Chapter’s Third Annual Conference. Have a look at the conference program!
NEW RESOURCES
NT Law Handbook on line! www.ntlawhandbook.org
The NT Law Handbook online has been developed by the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission and the Darwin Community Legal Service with the support of the Law Society Public Purposes Trust. The Handbook will be updated and corrected whenever changes are made to laws and regulations. The text is fully integrated with and hyper-linked to all the primary legal materials held on AustLII, the largest and most widely used free‐access provider of online Australian legal materials.
NAAJA Community Law Stories films:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLif9sTEBGoan7NbUKjM6UqX-il-dxjCgf
Community Law stories is a seven-part legal education series that was facilitated by NAAJA’s legal education team and written by the community for community. The criminal and civil sections assisted with identifying the key legal messages for the films. These films are already loved by community members, and now wish to share these films with everyone!
Ask Izzy – an innovative new mobile website that connects people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, with essential services. Ask Izzy is a free, location-based online directory that helps the one in 200 Australians who are homeless each night find food, shelter, health and other critical support services.
Protecting Australia’s Children: the Research and Evaluation Register is a searchable database of 944 research and evaluation projects conducted between 2011 and 2015.
The Register provides a range of filtering options to enable easy access to recent research in the area of child protection.
Risk assessment instruments in child protection: CFCA Resource Sheet— June 2016
The purpose of this Resource Sheet is to outline the different approaches used to assess whether children are at risk of maltreatment, as well as to explore some of the issues and criticisms surrounding the use of standardised risk assessment instruments in child protection.
The effect of trauma on the brain development of children – CFCA resource paper. Evidence-based principles for supporting the recovery of children in care. This practice paper provides an overview of what we know from research about cognitive development in children who have experienced trauma,1 and provides principles to support effective practice responses to those children’s trauma.