She had no choice
I have a particular client that wasn't in a position to be able to leave the partner. The partner had been imprisoned for 3 months for strangulation. Um she had a young child who had special needs.
She was also heavily pregnant and she was due to give birth around the time that he was going to be exiting.
He controlled all of the finances. She didn't know how to do any of that. She gave us a call and said, "I don't have a choice. I'm going to have to get back with him and have him in the home." By this stage, child protection were involved. She knew the consequences if he was to come back in the home. She also knew the consequences if he didn't.
We're so overwhelmed with family violence in the country at the moment with this epidemic. There's this big stereotype that it's, you know, not us, it's them. It's your mother, it's your sister, it's your daughter, your neighbour, your coworker you sit across from. It's not, you know, the person who's begging on the corner. That whole narrative is so judgmental and so wrong, so far-fetched that it it can happen to anybody.
We definitely have amazing outcomes when it comes to supporting women to make a difference. They can't thank you enough for not just saving them, but saving their children. And how do you say thank you to someone to getting you out of a situation that you thought was going to kill you? We are saving women. We are making a difference. Changing children's lives. They're going to be a completely different generation.
They're going to know what to do and how to do it. And I think that's that's the difference that we're trying to make and that we are making, which is fantastic.
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Jess is a HomeConnect Senior Case Worker at VincentCare Victoria. In this video, she shares what she sees every day supporting women, children and others who have had to flee from family violence.
That's why the Vinnies CEO Sleepout matters. On 18 June, business and community leaders will sleep out to raise funds for the housing, support and pathways that give people escaping domestic violence a real chance at safety and stability.