By Jamie Salter
Pakenham locals are celebrating improved access to family violence and child wellbeing support with the expansion of the Southern Melbourne Orange Door Network.
Family Violence Prevention Minister Gabrielle Williams officially opened the Pakenham access point for the Southern Melbourne Orange Door Network on Thursday 28 April.
She said the branch would ensure more people across the region can access the support they need.
“It’s a really good step forward for the southern region having Pakenham now open, it’s been operational since December but we’re just managing to get here now to formally open it,“ she said.
“Particularly in a community like Pakenham, it ensures that we’ve got the right spread of service provision across the community and that all corners of the southern region have access to the services they need in an integrated way.
Since opening in November 2021, the Southern Melbourne Orange Door Network has helped more than 14,500 people, including more than 6,300 children.
“That gives us a sense of the scale of this issue in our local communities but it also tells us more people are reaching out for assistance because it’s more visible and they now know where to go,“ Ms Williams said.
“While reporting rates can sound frightening, the positive is that it does mean people are having more confidence in the system to be able to meet their needs and that’s a much better proposition than people suffering in silence.“
The Orange Door Network is a free service for adults, children and young people that brings together specialist workers from specialist men’s, Aboriginal and child and family services to provide coordinated support.
The network is a partnership between Anglicare, Dandenong and District Aborigines Co-Operative, Uniting VicTas, Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, Wayss and the Victorian Government.
Wayss operational manager Giselle Bailey said a lot of work went into opening the access point throughout the pandemic.
“When I started in the family violence sector 12 years ago things were very different, the funding just simply wasn’t there,“ she said.
“The Orange Door has made an incredible positive change but unfortunately violence is still happening and around one woman a week is being killed.
“We want to put ourselves out of a job and if we can do that in our lifetime, how amazing would that be?“
Victoria has invested $3.5 billion since the Royal Commission into Family Violence with The Orange Door Network a key recommendation.
The Orange Door can be accessed by phone, email or face to face in Pakenham and Dandenong, with a site in Cranbourne to open later this year.
The Orange Door in Pakenham is open Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm.
For more information, call on 1800 271 170 or visit orangedoor.vic.gov.au
