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Coercive Control is Now a Crime – How Will We Respond?

The sector is strongest when we learn from each other

Criminalising coercive control changes the legal landscape for gender-based violence professionals in Queensland and will continue to shape the work that we do for years to come. As a sector, it is important that we make sense of these changes and respond to the impacts, so that we can continue our meaningful work.

WorkUP has listened and created professional development and resources to support you in making sense of these changes. Together, we will continue to strengthen practice across the whole workforce, reduce risk and enhance safety.

ROUNDTABLE – coercive control conversation

Join us for Responding Together: A practitioner roundtable on coercive control legislation. This opportunity has been designed in response to sector voices to provide a space to connect with peers, hear from experts and share the collective wisdom we need to move forward.

With the new coercive control legislation now in place, many of you are leading the way – preparing teams, navigating challenges, and raising vital questions about how these laws will play out in practice.

Through our sector engagement WorkUP has heard practitioners want to know:

• How will these laws effect individual workers?
• Do the laws change our case noting processes?
• How can we support workers giving evidence?
• How do victim survivors feel about these laws?
• What do we know about how victim survivors would like to see the laws used?

We understand that practitioners want to know what is happening in other parts of sector; how other services are responding; and how they plan to support their clients and teams.

The Roundtable is an opportunity to come together, build our capability to navigate these new laws, hear from experts and colleagues, and workshop a way forward.

This is a valuable chance to come together so, travel subsidies are available for people working in DFSV and Women’s Health and Wellbeing services in Queensland. Contact workforce@healingfoundation.org.au to find out more.

Register to find out more: https://events.humanitix.com/responding-together-coercive-control-roundtable

WEBINAR – hear from those already engaged with coercive control

Listen to our SPARK webinar to hear from experts in jurisdictions that have gone before us, about what it actually means to criminalise coercive control. If you are on the frontline, shaping policy, or building systems to support safety and accountability learn from others, and prepare for what’s ahead.

This webinar will be available on our resource hub and used as a prompt during our roundtable.

WORKSHOP SERIES – limited spaces

The Coercive Control and Social Entrapment Workshop Series is having an impact on the sector. Offered online, this series of four workshops deepens your understanding of coercive control, strengthens your practice skills and makes sense of our roles and responsibilities. We are offering opportunities this year to participate:

• October delivery: 21, 22, 28 and 29 October

RESOURCES – embed learning

We have created a Coercive Control page on the WorkUP Queensland website, which includes links to training, tools, further reading and supports for victim survivors.

You will find the most useful and relevant information to support your understanding and navigate these new laws. Check it out here: Coercive Control – WorkUP Queensland

We look forward to seeing you engage with these events and resources to strengthen the sector’s response with this new legislation.

Team Culture and Reflective Practice Critical in new Internship Program

An innovative Men’s Behaviour Change Program Facilitator Internship has been successfully piloted by YFS and WorkUP Queensland. This practical initiative strengthens the perpetrator intervention workforce by providing real-world training in a supported, structured environment.

Feedback highlights how critical team culture and reflective practice were to the program’s success and the value of structured mentoring to both new and experienced staff.

Offering a structured entry pathway into this specialist field, the 8-week internship program was designed to build capability in the Men’s Behaviour Change workforce. The internship pilot delivered clear benefits to interns and the host organisation, providing important insights about the logistics, challenges, and enablers of this model.

Over eight weeks, interns engaged in hands-on experience across the YFS Responsible Men’s program, including structured training, group facilitation, reflective supervision, court observations, and shadowing experienced practitioners. The model was supported by tailored training and supervision tools, ensuring a consistent and high-quality learning environment.

A full evaluation summary explores the outcomes of this pilot, the lessons learned, and practical suggestions for adapting and expanding the model across other services.

Read the full evaluation summary here.

Want to hear more?

Join WorkUP Queensland for a special information session facilitated by YFS. The team will share their insights and experiences from this innovative 8-week internship program. One session only Wednesday 25 June at 12pm

Register here.

Honouring Country and Healing Together: Standing with First Nations People in Truth, Strength and Legacy

For those working in the sector and for all Australians, our national days of significance offer a chance to pause and consider: What role can I play in reconciliation? What actions can I take that contribute to healing and justice?

This year’s NAIDOC Week theme, “Next Generation: Strength, Vision, Legacy,” invites us to think not just about the past, but about the legacy we are shaping now for the generations to come. It’s a powerful reminder that reconciliation is not a single event, but a continual process, a shared journey that requires listening, learning, and action.

As we acknowledged National Sorry Day (May 26), Reconciliation Week (May 28th to June 3rd), Mabo Day (June 3rd), and prepare for NAIDOC Week (July 6th to July 13th), we are once again called to reflect on our shared history. We are called to focus on the work still needed to create a future grounded in truth, justice, and genuine reconciliation.

Now is the time to engage. Whether it’s learning more about cultural frameworks, participating in NAIDOC Week events, or embedding culturally safe practices in your work, your contribution matters. Let’s continue walking this path together, with respect, with purpose, and with a vision for a stronger future led by First Nations’ voices.

At WorkUP Queensland, our commitment to walking alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities goes beyond acknowledgment. Through initiatives such as our Walking Together Learning Together mentoring program and Beyond Awareness: Culturally Safe Practice in our sector, we are working to embed cultural safety and respect throughout the domestic and family violence, sexual violence, and women’s health and wellbeing sectors. These programs support sector professionals to move beyond awareness and toward meaningful, culturally informed practice that centres First Nations voices.

Reflecting on Vikki Reynold’s – The Zone of Fabulousness and Justice-Doing

The recent 2-day event with Vikki Reynolds brought together workers from across the sector to dive deeper into The Zone of Fabulousness and Justice-Doing. The sessions were not just professional development—it was an invitation to reflect on how we show up in our roles, how we hold power, and how we keep justice at the heart of the work we do.

For those working directly with individuals and leading teams, this event really hit home. Vikki Reynolds spoke directly to the struggles of burnout, vicarious trauma, and navigating systems that often feel unjust. Instead of offering surface-level solutions, she reminded us that our strength comes from staying connected to our ethics, each other, and the communities we work alongside.

Attendees walked away feeling affirmed, challenged, and more grounded in their values—with tools and language to advocate for ethical practice, support colleagues, and sustain themselves in the work.

Vikki Reynolds is a Canadian therapist, activist, and scholar known globally for her ethics-driven approach to community work. Her sessions offered a powerful mix of insight, compassion, and challenge delivered through an engaging mix of theory and storytelling.

She invited us to move beyond traditional self-care and clinical detachment, introducing ideas like:

• Justice-Doing as an ethical stance, not just a goal
• Solidarity over charity—working with people, not for them
• Collective care, accountability, and co-responsibility
• Burnout prevention through purpose, community, and resistance

Vikki’s style was both disarming and inspiring, rooted in deep respect for those doing the work and sharp awareness of the systems we work within.

Stay tuned for upcoming sessions to deepen this learning together and visit https://vikkireynolds.ca/ to read her free resources and writing. If you attended this event, share how the sessions impacted you—what stuck, what shifted, and what still feels hard.

Workforce Survey Thank You – Your Voice Matters

We would like to give a massive thank you to everyone in the sector who made the time to complete our 2025 Workforce Survey. Together, we are shaping the workforce story we need to tell.

We received a strong response rate for the individual and organisational survey, with an overall 35% increase in responses. This has made our data both meaningful and powerful.

Over the years, workforce surveys have helped WorkUP to respond to sector needs and inform Government about the diversity of roles in the sector, the commonalities, difference and unique perspectives. WorkUP’s Workforce Surveys have enabled us to create resources for our sector and have informed the development of our service delivery.

Influenced by feedback in previous surveys, this recent survey had a particular focus on workplace burnout. We are eager to share our findings with you once we have completed initial sensemaking of the results.

Thank you again from all of us at WorkUP for the time and effort it took to complete the 2025 Workforce Survey. We are working to ensure that your perspectives are heard, amplified and reflected in the work that we do.

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at workforce@healingfoundation.org.au

Foundation Skills for Women’s Health and Wellbeing Work Launched 

After consulting and collaborating with women’s health and wellbeing services across Queensland, we are thrilled to have launched the final version of the Women’s Health and Wellbeing Foundation Skills program this July.  Developed alongside Children by Choice, this delivery began last year and has gone through extensive sector consultation, contemporary design, rigorous testing, and careful refinement.  

This 3-day online professional development supports participants foundational skills and understanding needed in the women’s health and wellbeing sector.  For existing workers, it was an opportunity to refresh practice frameworks and shared new resources. Workers from other parts of our sector, wanted to learn more about what was unique about women’s health and wellbeing services.  

We delivered this resource to the sector and are proud to have shared it with you. 

We are pleased to see this series completed and it will now be a part of our Introduction to the sector and Foundation Skills programs. Together, these offer a comprehensive breadth of core principles, skills, and approaches with our diverse workforce.   

• Welcome to Our Sector: Our Purpose, Our People, Our Resources – Online July 2025
  https://events.humanitix.com/welcome-to-our-sector-our-purpose-our-people-our-resources-online-july-2025 

• Foundations for Sexual Violence Work – 3 Part Online Series – (July 2025)
  https://events.humanitix.com/foundations-for-sexual-violence-work-3-part-online-series-july-2025 

• Foundations of Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) Work Practices (Online) – September 2025
  https://events.humanitix.com/foundations-of-domestic-and-family-violence-dfv-work-practices-online-september-2025 

• Foundation Skills for Women’s Health and Wellbeing Work (next delivery TBA)