Whittlesea CALD Communities Family Violence Research Report 2012 | Page 42

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Some mainstream service providers also maintained links and networks with CALD specific services
in order to draw on their expertise (for example, discussions at network meetings around particular
issues specific to CALD clients or through secondary consultations with CALD specific services in
relation to individual clients).

Consultations with Community and Religious Leaders
The Project Leader conducted one to one interviews with six recognised community leaders
representing a number of religious groups and communities in Whittlesea. As may be expected, all of
these religious and community leaders were male. These leaders were consulted due to the
likelihood of them being a first point of contact for community or congregation members disclosing
family violence and seeking assistance. They were drawn from a variety of backgrounds including
Indian, Middle Eastern and African and they represented a number of religious denominations
including Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Muslim and Sikh and one Sudanese community leader was
also consulted whose leadership role is non-religious.
The community and religious leaders were relatively experienced in their roles and all were senior
members of their institutions. Within this group there was a broad range of skills and experience
including one leader who had a Masters degree in family counselling and another who had
previously worked in a community organisation.
Consultations were conducted from a set list of pre-prepared questions (Refer to Appendix 3) that
were intended to gauge whether community and religious leaders are confronted with family
violence in their communities, how often this occurs, what assistance and information they are
providing to victims and perpetrators of family violence and the level of knowledge and expertise
that they have around family violence, legal rights and responsibilities and services.

Incidence of Family Violence
All community and religious leaders who participated in consultations had been approached by
someone from within their community who had experienced family violence.
Most often they were approached by the victim of family violence (and the victim was most often
female) but it was not unusual to be approached by the perpetrator. Religious/community leaders
explained this phenomenon as a result of the fact that such leaders are almost always male and men
in the community feel comfortable talking to and seeking assistance from a male leader which may
not be the case for women. It was observed by more than one religious leader that men were more
confident seeking assistance and it was not unusual for men to represent themselves as the victim or
a victim in the situation.
It was more unusual for a community or religious leader to be approached by family or friends of the
victim or perpetrator or other concerned bystanders.
Community and religious leaders acknowledged that family violence was occurring in their
communities and most said that they were regularly approached by people seeking assistance with
family violence although one religious leader was adamant that family violence was only a ‘rare
occurrence’ within his community because it was not condoned by religious teachings.