August, 2021 - WorkUP Queensland

Working well with Women with Disability

Over the past 8 months our team has been working in partnership with National Disability Services Qld and Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence to design, deliver and develop training and resources to enable the disability workforce to recognise and respond to domestic and family violence. This project is now complete and the resources ready for use by the disability sector.

We learnt throughout this project that women with disability are at far greater risk of sexual, domestic and family violence, they can find it harder to access support and when they do access support it might not meet their needs. This makes it easy for them to slip through the cracks. We realised that to ensure that women with disability receive the best support possible we also need to focus on professional development and resources for the domestic and family violence, sexual assault and women’s health and wellbeing sector.

Our response is ‘Working well with Women with Disability’, a five-part series that starts in September. We are delighted to be working in partnership with WWILD & QDN in development of this important series that is co-designed, developed and delivered with women with disability.

The aim of the series is to build confidence, knowledge, and skills to work well with people with disability experiencing sexual, domestic, or family violence. It will provide information about types of disability, gendered violence in the context of disability, communication, and resources and where and how to access additional resources or support when required. Advice, real stories and case studies from women with lived experience will make the series practical and engaging. As our sector is striving for increased inclusivity, the last session will explore organisational responses to ensure that services are inclusive for clients and staff with disabilities.

We invite you to join us for the whole series of workshops as each session will build on from the previous workshop’s learning, or just to take part in the ones of interest to you. Handouts and resources from each workshop will be made available to participants including those unable to attend all workshops.

The five sessions include:

Foundational knowledge – women with disability
Gendered violence in the disability context
Good practice in working with women with disability
Resources and support for working with women with disability
Inclusion of women with disability in organisations as clients and staff

To find out more please go to: https://events.humanitix.com/tours/working-well-with-women-with-disability

Your engagement in this series will help shape the development of a recorded series and resources that will be freely available to all.

Keep in touch on Facebook where we will introduce you to the facilitators over the coming weeks.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WorkUpQLD

by AnnikaHF

Continuous improvement to build a stronger workforce

What adaptions to the way you work have helped you through the COVID-19 pandemic?

What are the workforce challenges that have emerged during the last 18 months, and how can we learn from these to create a stronger workforce?

For the past two years, WorkUP Queensland has been working to deliver on statewide and regional workforce plans created by the domestic and family violence, women’s health and wellbeing, and sexual violence sector.

Input from workers in the sector has always been crucial to ensuring what we deliver meets the sector’s workforce current and emerging needs.

If you work in the domestic and family violence, sexual assault and women’s health and wellbeing sector in Queensland in any role, at any level, we would love to hear from you.

Join us at a new series of catch ups to share, listen, and create useful and engaging workforce strategies together, and to set the agenda for the coming two years.

The ‘CatchUP with WorkUP’ series provides an opportunity to share feedback on the workforce strategies delivered so far and the learning approaches we have used.

CatchUP sessions will be offered in 11 locations across Queensland, to:

Share our learnings from working through COVID – what do we want to carry into the future?
Provide feedback about our workforce activities so far – what worked well and what can we build on?
Discuss the critical workforce issues you have encountered and work with us to create solutions.
Learn about exciting WorkUP Queensland workforce activities underway and how you can get involved.

Click here to register.

by MandyHF

$20,000 scholarships coming this September

Scholarship Program September 2021 – Supporting professional development

WorkUP Queensland is excited to launch a new round of our scholarship program for the workforce of organisations funded by the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General to deliver domestic and family violence, sexual violence and women’s health and well-being services.

Scholarships to the value of $20,000 are granted towards fees for accredited training and higher education for workers of any level across organisations.

We encourage you to explore the range of opportunities available, from frontline workers to managers.  Applicants must demonstrate the impact the qualification will have on their role and work within the sector, how they will share their knowledge with colleagues, and the application must be endorsed by their employer.

Our awarded scholarships to date have included a range of courses including: