In September 2023, in partnership with Australian Communities Foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation committed a total of $13.6 million in funding to 58 organisations working with key cohorts and communities affected by domestic and family violence (DFV). These grants aimed to engage specialist support services working with specific groups, including First Nations communities, children, migrant and refugee communities, rural and remote communities, pregnant women, LGBTIQA+ communities, single mothers, women with a disability, and perpetrators and users of violence.

The Foundation engaged two learning partners for the program - Innovation Unit is convening the group of 31 non-First Nations-Led organisations who have been awarded grants, and ResearchCrowd is convening the group of 27 First Nations-led organisations. Their collective aim is to build relationships and strengthen connections across the DFV specialist support field - a field that is rich with knowledge and expertise around how to work with key cohorts and communities to address and prevent DFV.

In this report based on one-to-one conversations with the organisations, Innovation Unit explores professional experiences of working with specialist cohorts and communities around DFV support and prevention, as well as the wider shifts in support and conditions needed to really make a difference for people, families and communities in Australia.

This paper should be of interest to those in the DFV specialist support field, as well as peaks, intermediaries, federal and state governments, philanthropic and other funders. Given the cross-cutting nature of the issues at the root of DFV, these insights should also be relevant to overlapping areas of actions such as housing and homelessness, child protection, education, youth services, health and wellbeing and migrant and refugee services, amongst others.