Late last year, Serious Woo was approached by Dr Katie Lamb, Director of Counterpoint Advisory to co-design some very important family violence training for workplaces in the private sector.
Since the introduction of family violence leave, many workplaces have introduced family violence policies and support officers into the business. It's a significant step.
However, the impacts of family violence are complex. Supporting those who are living within or removing themselves from a family violence situation can be challenging. Some organisations have gone to great lengths to meet the needs of employees experiencing family violence and help them sustain employment.
There are also circumstances where well intended actions and policies have unintentionally put employees and their families at greater risk.
Traditional family violence training has not always met the specific needs of organisational culture. Dr Lamb, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne and Director of Counterpoint Advisory has been a passionate agent of change in this space for some time and her former experience as a management consultant at KMPG means she understands that private sector organisations face unique challenges in addressing family violence being experienced by employees or clients.
She has seen a need for family violence training which is specifically designed by and delivered by trainers who understand and have experience within corporate environments.
This is why she asked us, as experiential learning experts, to devise bespoke training for the private sector, which reflects the specific needs of victim survivors in this landscape.
Over the course of the content development, we learnt a lot about the misconceptions of how to support employees experiencing family violence and the best ways to do so. This is not simply a case of using "common sense" as the actions of perpetrators of family violence can be so much more sinister than what we can imagine.
The training is engaging, targeted and relevant. It has been informed by the latest evidence on family violence internationally. We have involved also victim survivors in the design and delivery of the training. Serious Woo actors will bring life to complex conversations and assist in transitioning theory to best practice.
This training is designed to give managers, HR teams and other organisational leaders the knowledge and confidence to support employees experiencing family violence. This training is a must for workplaces.
For dates and further information, please go to our public workshops page.