Centre for Non-Violence welcomes funding for family violence response during COVID-19

It comes as a Victoria Police operation detected 780 family violence offences, which saw 100 people charged and remanded for family violence and other criminal offences.

An additional 98 people were arrested.

Local figures for the ongoing Operation Ribbon, which started on April 13, were not available.

Centre for Non-Violence general manager of client services Yvette Jaczina said the statewide figures were distressing.

"And we would imagine that central Victoria is not immune from that, and that some of these situations occurred in our location," she said.

"As the Centre for Non-Violence has said for many years, family violence is a national emergency, and the numbers the police quoted attest to that."

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The Centre for Non-Violence received the highest portion of the state government funding that flowed to the region to assist family violence services in response to COVID-19.

Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-Operative received $88,025. Annie North received almost $60,000, and Centre Against Sexual Assault Central Victoria was allocated more than $48,500.

Statewide, the government funding package amounted to $20.2 million.

Centre for Non-Violence chief executive Margaret Augerinos said the funding the organisation received would help women and children access safety.

"We expect that as we see COVID-19 restrictions ease in the coming weeks and months our service will see increased demand," she said.

The funding package would boost the organisation's crisis case management support, brokerage funding and flexible funding.

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Ms Jaczina said funding could be allocated in a range of ways, dependent on the needs of women and children. Potential uses included helping access emergency or medium-term accommodation, buy goods or furnish a house.

Funds could also be used to help the family recover from the trauma of violence.

"There will be a need for women and their children to make significant changes in their lives, potentially, as a result of their experiences during the pandemic," Ms Jaczina said.

"That funding will give us the opportunity to respond quickly and appropriately.

"We know it's going to be important in this time of uncertainty that we are looking at trying to provide some stability and not Band-Aid measures.

"We expect to need to be able to provide medium-term accommodation, as opposed to one or two nights of emergency accommodation."

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