The Federal Government is committing more than $23 million over three years to 2026-27 to 12 organisations across states and territories for the trial, in rural and regional settings as well as metropolitan areas.

Additional trial sites are expected to be announced in early 2025.

Organisations will be tasked with creating a new early intervention program for young men and boys aged 12 to 18 years who present with adverse childhood experiences, including family and domestic violence, and who are using or at risk of using family, domestic or sexual violence.

The initial trial locations will be Moree Plains and Newcastle in NSW, Hume and Greater Shepparton in Victoria, Ipswich, Logan and Rockhampton in Queensland, Playford in South Australia, Joondalup and Broome in Western Australia, the ACT, and Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania.

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth visited the Domestic Violence Action Centre (DVAC) in Ipswich today, one of the sites chosen to help deliver the trial.

She said the funding would help provide crucial support for boys and young men to recover and heal from their experiences of violence and stop the risk of harm escalating and continuing into their adult relationships.

“We know that children, particularly men and boys, who have experienced family and domestic violence or other adverse childhood experiences, are more likely to choose to use violence, and therefore we know that if we are going to break the cycle, we must work with these boys and men to make sure that the cycle is not repeated,” she said.

Aime Carrington, CEO of the Ipswich DVAC, said the new program, titled Breaking The Cycle, will be about supporting the boys and young men on their journey for healing and trauma and abuse that they’ve experienced.

“And we’ll be supporting them to build their own positive masculinities, behaviours, and ways of behaving within the family and with their own intimate partners,” she said.

“We’re really excited, because what this program will do is it will build a new evidence base through being evaluated to show what really works with breaking the cycle of domestic and sexual violence.”

Eligible young men and boys will receive counselling and therapeutic support to:

  • Assist with their recovery and healing from their experiences of family and domestic violence;
  • Help them avoid choosing to use family, domestic and sexual violence; and
  • Build the evidence base on effective approaches to supporting young men and boys.

Supports will include one-on-one counselling, case management and youth mentoring along with personalised safety plans and assessments.

Services have been chosen that are culturally safe and responsive, trauma and healing-informed, strengths-based and support will be tailored to the individual needs and circumstances of participants.

Rishworth said that early intervention is a key area of focus under the National Plan to End Violence against Women 2022-2032.

“Supporting children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right and addressing the impacts of developmental trauma to help healing and recovery will help break future cycles of violence,” she said.

“We know in order to achieve our shared goal of ending violence against women and children in one generation we need to be working across all four domains of the National Plan.

“There are currently only limited and inconsistent services available across Australia that specifically support children and young people who have experienced violence and are themselves using or at risk of using violence and this trial will help address this gap.”

Carrington said that Government funding is essential to the success of specialist domestic family and central violence services.

“And it’s really important to be doing innovative pilots like the Breaking the Cycle program, because we need to do more as a society to really make a difference and to change the trajectory,” she said.

“If we want to achieve ending gender-based violence in one generation, it’s services like this that are going to make a real difference alongside everything else that we’re doing.

“Ending gender-based violence is going to take a whole society, and so this is a really important step forward.”

More information on the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 is available here. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family, or sexual violence, call 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or click here for online chat and video call services.

If you are concerned about your behaviour or use of violence, you can contact the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491 or click here.

Kids Helpline (1800 551 800) is a free, confidential online and phone counselling service for young people aged 5 to 25. This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.