Salvation Army leading the way with award-winning Alexis Model
BY LERISSE SMITH
It is a subject many shy away from discussing, yet it is a frightening and devastating reality for countless individuals.
Family Violence continues to tear apart families and communities, leaving deep and lasting scars, with one in every four Australian women impacted in their lifetime.
But not all hope is lost.
A strong and driving force for lasting and transformative change is the key focus of The Salvation Army’s Alexis Family Violence Response Model (known as Alexis FVRM) based in Melbourne, with the team’s recent Silver Award at the prestigious Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards testament to its innovative work.
“Winning the award means the world to our team,” reflected Lauren Chisholm, Senior Manager of the Men’s Services.
“It validates the hard work we have put into integrating the Alexis Program within the Family Violence Investigation Units. The award is not just for us but for every victim survivor we have supported and for every family we have helped keep safe.
“It also acknowledges the importance of collaboration between police and specialised practitioners in tackling family violence in a more holistic way. We are so proud to be part of a model that is making a tangible difference in people’s lives, and this award inspires us to continue our efforts to reduce and prevent family violence across our communities.”
The model has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2014 when The Salvation Army and Victoria Police joined forces to form a partnership aiming to reduce family violence for victim-survivors and to achieve accountability among perpetrators.
The alliance was formed after both police and specialist family violence services recognised the need for a more coordinated and effective response to family violence, especially where serious risk and recidivism had been identified.
It takes an integrated and innovative approach to intervention by placing specialist family violence practitioners directly within Family Violence Investigation Units at police stations.
And annually, the Alexis program supports 160 victim-survivors and 160 perpetrators.
“One of the unique elements is that we are embedded in the police station, which means information sharing is expedited,” Lauren explained.
“We are in the police station and hearing of live incidents as they are happening and assisting police with information sharing. We have a targeted response to really high-risk, vulnerable victims and really high-risk perpetrators of violence.”
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The Alexis FVRM specifically targets families who fall outside the scope of traditional family violence services.
Many of these families experience complex intersecting issues like alcohol and other drugs, mental health and disability, which impacts their safety and ability to engage with supports to achieve outcomes relating to safety.
Most of Alexis’ clients are chronically disengaged from police and other support services, with the model designed to provide an assertive response to those clients in a timely manner.
And the greatest impact of the program?
Lauren said the collaboration between Alexis and the police had led to greater referral uptake, a reduction in family violence risk, and a more skilled workforce.
When it comes to tackling the issue of family violence, Lauren believes it all starts with a conversation.
“We know a woman, on average, takes seven times to leave a relationship where there is family violence,” she said.
“I know from working with women in an intake capacity that often during that first conversation, and depending on the level of violence, their own awareness, etc, the really valuable thing is that in that first conversation where we are providing some psycho-education. You often find along the way, after further incidents happen, further conversation happens.”
Eventually, at some point, the penny drops for the woman, and she is aware of the cycle of violence, Lauren says. “She watches it play out, and then she comes to a place of readiness (to receive help).”
Primary prevention is also key to dealing with the issue, especially in schools and universities. Working with young people and educating them so it is going to stop it (family violence) getting from where we are at this point is critical, Lauren added.
The Alexis program is active in four police stations across three Victorian Police Divisions. Two practitioners are based in each station: one supports victim-survivors, adults and children, and the other supports the person using violence.
The victim-survivors the Alexis team work with frequently present with a range of complex issues, including substance abuse, mental health challenges and homelessness. Their engagement with mainstream services often tended to be low due to significant barriers, including negative past experiences with law enforcement.
But thanks to Alexis, the program has fostered improved trust in police among victim-survivors.
“Particularly in cases of misidentification,” Lauren says. “It provides both practical and emotional support to help them feel safe and move away from harmful relationships.”
For perpetrators, who are predominantly male, the program addresses the underlying factors driving their behaviour, which are often complex and interconnected.
These factors may include but are not limited to, the need for power and control, intergenerational violence, cultural and societal norms, mental health issues, substance use (which may increase the risk but are not direct causes), entitlement, gender inequality, and a lack of accountability.
“All interventions work towards reducing risk to the affected family members and their children.”
By exploring and addressing these root causes, the program reduces repeat offences and supports individuals in building healthy, non-violent relationships.
Through early intervention and facilitated engagement, the team has achieved some of the highest rates of participation among men using violence.
A notable example is a serial offender who, previously difficult to locate and confrontational with police, became cooperative after engaging with an Alexis worker, even voluntarily coming to the station to face charges.
The Alexis team can also work with parties individually or provide a ‘whole of family’ response based on individual needs and circumstances, such as whether they live in the same government region.
The practitioners usually engage clients for about 12 weeks using proactive, opportunistic and creative outreach in either an unannounced, facilitated or planned engagement capacity at various locations such as client homes, hospitals, prisons or neutral places such as cafes and libraries.
“All interventions work towards reducing risk to the affected family members and their children,” Lauren said. “And holding the perpetrator to account for their use of violence whilst simultaneously addressing the drivers for same.”
And the success of the Alexis model cannot be understated.
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology research found an 85 per cent reduction in family violence recidivism for clients served by the Alexis Program, and 51 per cent of respondents had no further police callouts for family violence recorded anywhere in Victoria.
Support for both victim-survivors and perpetrators is also a top priority.
The program supports victim-survivors when they decide to leave by addressing immediate needs such as emergency accommodation, transportation, material aid, and Flexible Support Packages to access essential services, including counselling, legal aid, financial assistance, safety measures and security needs.
For perpetrators, Alexis offers brokerage to address immediate needs, including short-term housing and transport to appointments and connects them to the Men’s Referral Services.
“We take great pride in our program’s ability to connect with a cohort of clients who often miss out on crucial support due to their complex needs and high levels of risk.”
By supporting both parties, the program promotes a trauma-informed approach that builds trust between victims and police and assists offenders in addressing their behaviour before it escalates further.
“By strengthening police knowledge base around evidence-based family violence risk factors, they are more readily able to recognise more discrete indicators of family violence such as coercive control and can sooner identify incidences of misidentification of the predominant aggressor.”
The future is bright for the Alexis team, which plans to continue their vital service to the community for a long time and hopes it will be expanded nationwide.
“We take great pride in our program’s ability to connect with a cohort of clients who often miss out on crucial support due to their complex needs and high levels of risk,” Lauren commented.
“By engaging clients at the moment of crisis through assertive outreach, we achieve significantly better engagement rates with both victim-survivors and perpetrators of violence. We hope the program is rolled out everywhere.”
