Family violence is the leading cause of homelessness in Australia, and there has been a staggering 10% increase in homelessness due to family violence since 2012.1 58% of homeless people in Victoria are female and 14% are under 12 years of age.3 Therefore it is often a single mother and her children escaping family violence that faces homelessness. Homelessness and poor housing have significant impacts on health and wellbeing.

Village Well were engaged by Launch Housing to provide engagement of services and a Community Activity Plan for their newest development in Dandenong; Viv’s Place.  Village Well interviewed 48 service provides in Dandenong and the greater area through a presentation at the Southern Melbourne FV partnership meeting, two stakeholder workshops with 22 attendees, and 39 individual interviews. Place research was also conducted, from desktop research into the area to site visits and visits to other services in the area.  A live directory was also developed, with key contact information and information gathered from the interviews.

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The Community activity Plan helped set up the governance on site for the new development.  Residents are yet to move in, with the open day being held early August.  The engagement process was successful in raising awareness of the project in the wider community, as well as building relationships with services that have now become a consortium.