Addressing Social Needs in Australia
Description of Organizations and their functioning
Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) is a National Women’s Alliance that fights against domestic violence. According to the World Health Organization (2017), violence against women is prevalent in many countries and a major public health problem across the world. Therefore, AWAVA is focused on ensuring that women and children live in environments that are free of domestic violence.
AWAVA ensures that the voices of abused and marginalized women are heard by the government, therefore rallying the support of policies against domestic violence (AWAVA, 2019). AWAVA not only responds to distress calls but also prevent violence against women and children by educating society. Since AWAVA is a national body, the officials reach out to organizations in every state and territory in Australia to ensure all women can access the services of AWAVA.
Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services (MARSS) is an organization that assists migrants and refugees in Australia with long-term integration. Australia hosts more refugees than many countries in the world. Therefore, there is a need for refugee organizations to help the refugees integrate with native Australians. MARSS, Australia is funded by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (MARSS, 2019). Therefore, the program is well-equipped to help and accommodate refugees.
MARRS provides settlement engagement and transition support. Refugees mostly come from warring countries. Therefore, refugees need legal help to ensure they conform to Australia’s standards of a refugee. Also, MARRS provides a homelessness service program that helps asylum seekers with uncertain immigration status. Australia has numerous immigration policies that refugees need to conform to. Homeless refugees often have more trouble authenticating their immigration status. Thus, MARSS steps in to provide temporary housing facilities as the refugees validate their immigration status. MARSS also offer community development programs. Since refugees come from countries with different cultures and languages, MARRS help refugees integrate with native-born Australians by providing community development programs.
Programmes provided by the organizations and their approach to client health and wellbeing
The Australian Women Against Violence Alliance has several programs that are tailored to suit the needs of women and children. Most cases of domestic violence go unreported since the abuse is from intimate partners (Carrington et al., 2003). Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, or psychological. Most women who get abused by their intimate partners fail to report to authorities because of denial. Also, most cases of persistent domestic abuse lead to homicide as the abused partner acts in self-defense. As a result, AWAVA implements several programs aimed at helping women and children facing domestic abuse.
AWAVA connects women to several services and organizations that provide support and assistance to women and children subjected to violence (AWAVA, 2019). The 1800 RESPECT is a hotline that supports victims of domestic and sexual violence. The RESPECT hotline not only responds to distress calls but also provide professional counseling from qualified and experienced counselors. Another program supported by AWAVA is the Ask Izzy mobile site. The site offers resources and support to people experiencing violence. Women can share experiences and support each other on the mobile site. The Ask Izzy mobile site works as an online support group for women experiencing domestic abuse.
After reaching out to abuse victims through helplines, AWAVA advocates for women rights at a macro level. The alliance provides leadership and advocacy at the national standards concerning all aspects of violence against women and children (AWAVA, 2019). The coalition plays a significant role in influencing policies on violence against women. Australia now implements policies to prevent domestic violence. Also, abuse victims can get access to justice since organizations like AWAVA provide legal services for women. Therefore, AWAVA programs are tailored to suit the needs of abuse victims.
Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services Australia also have several programs to ensure the wellbeing of refugees at a macro level. MARRS provides settlement engagement and transition support to refugees who need legal help to ensure they conform to Australia’s standards of a refugee. Also, MARRS provides a homelessness service program that helps asylum seekers with uncertain immigration status. Australia has numerous immigration policies that refugees need to conform to. Thus, MARSS steps in to provide temporary housing facilities as the refugees authenticate their immigration status. MARSS also offer community development programs. Since refugees come from countries with different cultures and languages, MARRS help refugees integrate with native-born Australians by providing community development programs.
AWAVA and MARRS complement each in providing social services. In line with Rees et al. (2007), it has been identified that immigrant and refugee women are particularly at risk in cases of domestic violence. Therefore, as MARRS plays a role to ensure the wellbeing of refugees, AWAVA comes in to prevent domestic abuse against refugee women. Refugee women have a harder time to report abuse because of several factors. Being in foreign country refugee women live in fear and stigmatization. Thus, it is hard for them to report cases of violence. Furthermore, most refugees are not familiar with the justice system of the host country. Therefore, many suffer in silence. MARRS works at a micro-level with refugees to implement community development programs. Refugees learn about the justice system in Australia, which enables victims of violence to report cases of abuse. AWAVA then helps refugee women by advocating for their rights and providing counseling services. The two organizations complement each other by assisting refugees on humanitarian grounds.
Identification of strengths and risk factors
AWAVA, like all organizations, portrays strengths and risk factors. The significant advantage of AWAVA is an extensive geographical coverage. As mentioned earlier, AWAVA is a national body that protects women from domestic abuse. AWAVA reaches many people across Australia because AWAVA supports many programs that fight against domestic violence.
The major weakness of AWAVA is representing many women’s organizations. The problem with representing many organizations is that AWAVA fails to reach the grass-root level. For instance, women in refugee camps may fail to get the representation they need by AWAVA. AWAVA needs to extend its services to cover marginalized women and increase awareness against domestic violence.
AWAVA has the opportunity to extend its services to refugee camps. As mentioned earlier, AWAVA is unable to reach the marginalized women because the organization represents many organizations. However, AWAVA can turn the weakness into a strength. The women in refugee camps need organizations such as AWAVA to advocate for their rights. By advocating for refugee rights, AWAVA will gain popularity and attracts sponsors who in turn, fund AWAVA programs. When AWAVA gets extra funding, the organization can reach out to more victims of domestic violence.
The risk factors AWAVA gets involved in is providing legal services to women. As stated earlier, AWAVA offers legal services to women who are victims of domestic abuse. Providing free legal services for women can disable other services provided by AWAVA. If AWAVA cannot run all their programs effectively, the organization will not perform its duties effectively. Thus, AWAVA has to plan effectively on how to disburse free legal services to abuse victims to avoid risking other support programs.
The major strength of MARRS is also comprehensive geographical coverage. MARRS works in conjunction with The United Nations Refugee Agency and the Refugee Council of Australia to advocate for the rights of refugees. Thus, MARRS is well equipped to support the needs of refugees. When MARRS cannot reach refugees, other organizations can come to the rescue of refugees.
MARRS has a weakness in providing homelessness services. MARRS provides refuge for asylum seekers and refugees with uncertain immigration status. Providing housing facilities for asylum seekers requires a lot of resources. The programs implemented by MARRS also require monetary resources. Thus, providing housing facilities for refugees with uncertain immigration status is not a priority for MARRS since there are many immigrants with approved immigration status.
MARRS can utilize an opportunity to collaborate with other humanitarian organizations such as AWAVA. Refugees need not only community development programmes, but also other social services to facilitate their stay in Australia. Other organizations like AWAVA can help MARRS to reach out to victims of domestic abuse. Women and children make up a majority of refugees, and therefore, MARRS can use the help of other organizations to facilitate the different needs of refugees.
The weakness in MARRS is the inability to implement all social community development programs. Programs such as after school studies and home tutor programs require a lot of workforces that are unavailable in MARRS. Most MARRS workers focus on getting the refugees’ fundamental rights and therefore fail to implement other developmental programs that are provided by MARRS.
In conclusion, AWAVA and MARRS are critical social programs in Australia. Although each organization performs exceptionally in their field, both organizations can join forces and improve on the programs they provide. So far, AWAVA and MARRS have protected the rights of women and refugees, respectively. If both organizations would take advantage of the available opportunities, they can turn their weaknesses into strengths and provide better and effective programs.
References
Australian Women Against Violence Association . (2019). Our Key Areas: Influencing National Policy on Violence against Women. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from Australian Women Against Violence Association : https://awava.org.au/our-key-areas
Carrington, K., & Phillips, J. (2003). Domestic violence in Australia: An overview of the issues. Parliament of Australia E-Brief< http://www. aph. gov. au/library/intguide/SP/Dom_Violence. htm>(accessed 24 June 2008).
Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services . (2019). Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services, Australia. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services : https://www.marss.org.au/
Rees, S., & Pease, B. (2007). Domestic violence in refugee families in Australia. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 5(2), 1-19.
World Health Organization. (2017, November 29). World Health Organization . Retrieved September 30, 2019, from Violence against women: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women