Co-designing the Family Safety Innovation Hub

The ACT Government committed to funding a $21 million family violence package in response to a series of reports including the Glanfield Inquiry, the Death Review and the Gap Analysis. These reports made findings about the critical importance of services working together to provide effective responses to domestic and family violence in the ACT. In recognition of the need for a focal point in the service system that would encourage and facilitate this collaborative approach, the ACT Government committed to establishing a Family Safety Innovation Hub. The Hub is intended to help address barriers and limitations of the service system.

ThinkPlace led the co-design of the Hub with Government, the community, service providers and people with lived experience of domestic and family violence. Together, a core design team including government and non-government members with specialist expertise in domestic and family violence identified the role, functions and priority focus areas of the Hub. The collaborative process enabled buy-in from the community as well as both the private and public sector. “The voice of the people is very much heard. I was sceptical, but this process has given me hope. I am excited about what will come next." Core Design Team member.

The Hub will provide an opportunity to bring the right people together to develop, test and scale innovative solutions that address priority areas around domestic and family violence. Including stakeholders in the co-design process ensured that users' needs were central to the direction of the Hub. It also led to the establishment of strong partnerships with both government and non-government stakeholders. These partnerships will be integral to the ways the Hub develops and runs pilots. In April 2018 we will run our first ‘innovation challenge’ through the Hub, focusing on developing early intervention responses from pregnant women and new mothers.

The project sought to listen to and co-design alongside at-risk and vulnerable groups within the ACT community. These groups included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and families, culturally and linguistically diverse women and families, LGBT+ community members, women with a disability and young men with lived experience of violence in their family. The premise behind this approach is simple: If we can understand and overcome barriers for these groups, our response will make services more accessible, responsive and effective for all community members. Our research unearthed multiple barriers and limitations within the existing ACT service system and identified the need for new services and innovative responses to meet people’s unique needs. We identified priority focus areas for the Hub to address including: * Creating shared understanding: Increasing understanding of domestic and family violence among trusted service providers and the broader community * Building new capability: Developing system-wide capability to provide integrated, evidence-based responses that are culturally appropriate and trauma-informed * Designing alternative pathways to safety: Co-designing pathways to safety and solutions to systematic problems that meet people’s needs and reduce fear of the system.