OUR VISION

The Jewish Alliance Against Family Violence envisages a community free from family violence and abuse. JAAFV aims to realize this vision by empowerment through:

(i) educating the community about family violence and abuse;
(ii) promoting safe and healthy relationships; and
(iii) facilitating access to a comprehensive range of support services.

SCOPE OF JAAFV INITIATIVES

The scope of initiatives includes:

• educating the community about domestic violence so as to raise awareness; empower potential and actual victims; assist potential perpetrators to recognize and respond appropriately to situations in which their behaviour might spiral into abuse and/or violence; facilitate friends and relatives of victims to respond appropriately; and raise awareness about healthy relationships.

• educating and training service providers within the Jewish community, including rabbis, rebbetzins, teachers, lawyers, doctors, psychologists, counsellors and therapists, regarding appropriate responses, specific to the Jewish community
• establishing a mechanism of referral to appropriate services for people who approach JAAFV regarding a person experiencing domestic or family violence
• developing and maintaining a website with information and links to relevant websites.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

JAAFV envisages that its education initiatives will impact on groups across the whole of the Jewish community as well as the wider community. The intention of JAAFV is to form working relationships in the general community with police; the ambulance service, hospitals; agencies dealing specifically with family/domestic violence issues; social service agencies (e.g Lifeline, Relationships Australia, Women’s Health Centres); crisis accommodation centres, as well as Jewish social services providers and smaller groups within the Jewish community such as Russian and Hebrew speakers, gay and lesbian members of the community.