Women with diverse backgrounds and experiences

Discover achievements made in 2022 and focus areas in 2023 to deliver on commitments made in the Queensland women’s strategy 2022–27 (the strategy) in the area of women with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

2022 achievements

• Department of Seniors, Disability Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (DSDSATSIP):
  • invested record funding of $6.6 million for seniors legal and support services, as well as $606,000 for elder abuse awareness, prevention and intervention, $406,000 for seniors financial protection services, and $102,000 for scams and fraud awareness
  • released Queensland’s Disability plan 2022–27: Together a better Queensland which aligns with Australia’s Disability strategy 2021–2031 in November 2022; the plan includes, as a priority, that policies, processes and programs for people with disability promote gender equality and prevent violence against groups at heightened risk, including women and their children.
• Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy (DCHDE) developed the Communities 2032 action plan 2022–25 committing to the establishment of a community-led Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ+) Alliance and convening the Queensland LGBTIQ+ Roundtable, including with First Nations representation and representation of young people, to ensure consideration of distinct and diverse voices.
• Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs (DCYJMA) committed a further $1.5 million from for the gendered response to bail support service, established in 2018–19 to assist girls and young women aged 10 to 17 years at high risk of being remanded to custody to complete bail and reduce future offending behaviour.
• Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) established a partnership between the State Emergency Service (SES) and Girl Guides Australia Queensland to encourage young women to improve general life skills around severe weather preparedness to consider volunteering with SES.
• Throughout 2022, the WOW Festival—a national and international event celebrating the achievements of women and girls—visited Longreach and Cairns to engage with rural and regional women and communities. The festival, sponsored by the Queensland Government, uses the arts and creativity to explore and expose the limits of human thinking on gender relations and their consequences, and to imagine a better world of equality.
• Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water (DRDMW) and Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) partnered with UNIQ You and Seqwater to provide a mentoring program that has selected 5 high-performing females to mentor high-school aged girls across a variety of disciplines, such as engineering and water treatment.
• Queensland Corrective Services (QCS):
  • funded and supported women’s re-entry services to women exiting prison to assist with accommodation, family reintegration, mental health needs and access to treatment for alcohol and other drugs; the service promotes the overall wellbeing of women by supporting them to be successful in the community and ultimately encourages long-term desistance from crime and in 2021–22, 1,424 female prisoners and 879 women subject to community supervision were supported by re-entry services
  • partnered with Griffith University on the Transforming Corrections to Transform Lives (TCTL) project; the purpose of phase 1 of the project was to co-create a new model of service provision for imprisoned mothers and their children, during custody and after release to create conditions for families to thrive through an holistic system of practice that supports wellbeing and social inclusion, and provide more effective, sustainable service provision that can be scaled-up by governments.

Good news story

Safe and Diverse Communities grant program—Islamic Women's Association of Australia

In 2021, the Safe and Diverse Communities grant program invested $24,650 in the Cultural Messaging for Community Safety project by the Islamic Women’s Association of Australia (IWAA), to be delivered in 2022. The project saw IWAA deliver 4 workshops which sought to provide information to leaders within the community about what is domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV). The workshops then culminated in the creation of in-language domestic and family violence (DFV) prevention resources, designed to inform and assist culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. On 28 November 2022 IWAA launched their “It Starts with Respect” video project.

2023 focus

• DSDSATSIP will establish the Seniors Legal and Support Services in new locations in the Logan and Beaudesert region, Ipswich, Moreton Bay North and provide outreach services to Outback Queensland, Cape York and the Torres Strait.
• Implementation of the CALD cultural capability project by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG) will develop the evidence base of what works—and build the capacity and knowledge of community workers—in CALD communities for the prevention of DFSV.
• An upcoming project titled "This is Us" will celebrate and recognise Gladstone regional businesswomen and their achievements and help break down gendered stereotypes. Funding for the project came from the Investing in Queensland Women grants program and the Gladstone Regional Council’s Regional Arts Development Fund program, a partnership with Arts Queensland.
• Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) will:
  • invest more than $2 million on dedicated women's re-entry services that promote the overall wellbeing of women by assisting them with practical and holistic support to transition from custody and desist from offending
  • progress phase 2 of the TCTL project with development the TCTL Centre and establishment of the program; the TCTL Centre will deliver and trial intensive services to mothers in prison in South East Queensland and Townsville commencing 2023–24.

What the Queensland Government is already doing

• DJAG delivers the Safe and Diverse Communities grant program which in turn supports small, targeted, community-led projects to increase the capability of multicultural communities to recognise, respond and prevent DFSV across Queensland.
• Arts Queensland within DCHDE administers grant programs which support skill development and career opportunities for women in the creative workforce.
• The Queensland Disability Advocacy Program is a key Queensland initiative that supports women and girls with disability.

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