Written by: Maya Romic, Capacity Building Consultant, Clear Impact Australia
People often ask me if I enjoy what I do. I say that even though I love it, it can be frustrating. I’ll explain why.
We at Clear Impact have a crucial piece of the puzzle needed for effective leadership in communities; this puzzle piece can create the discipline required to produce measurable results. The Results Based Accountability™ framework provides this discipline and has been proven to work. However, leaders and communities are often continuing to follow other processes without much progress, or even the ability to track any progress that is being made.
Recently, my Twitter feed was buzzing with another national report exposing damning statistics highlighting the number of children who are victims of domestic violence. The Children’s Rights Commissioner’s report revealed that 23% of children in Australia have experienced domestic violence either as a witness or direct victim of abuse. If I’m reading this right, that’s over one million children. However, that’s not what I find shocking. What’s shocking is that this is actually old news.
Five years ago, the Council of Australian Governments endorsed the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their children (2010-2022), and it was identified that tackling domestic violence was a national priority and the time for change was now. The Plan also revealed shocking statistics, using a study from 2006, stating that 1in 3 Australian women had experienced physical violence since age 15. Citing a 2002 study, it told us that Aboriginal women are 35 times more likely than other Australian women to be hospitalised as result of violence perpetrated against them. The study also asserted that children are significantly affected by exposure to violence.
This isn’t the only plan we have on the issue. In NSW alone, there are at least four other plans that address domestic violence. These plans discuss the same issues; identify the same gaps in the system; and offer the same solutions for addressing them. Five years later, we have another report telling us that domestic violence should be a national priority. What is frustrating is that it appears that all we are doing is talking about the same issues – significant issues affecting our children and families – planning to do something about it, but never seeing any real results.
We don’t need another plan. We need better leadership!
In a recent comparative analysis of the number of plans, both national and state, it was found that these plans were basically working towards the same result. All identified very similar gaps in the way government departments, non-government services and communities respond to domestic violence. These gaps highlighted that the system was not actually producing desired outcomes for the people it was supposed to serve. The proposed strategies or solutions were also very similar, proposing a bigger focus on prevention and early intervention, victim support, better service delivery, holding perpetrators accountable, and improving rehabilitation. One of the biggest areas that these plans were missing was the data, thereby making it very difficult to evidence any change or improvement in the conditions of wellbeing for this population.
The one million Australian children who are experiencing domestic violence don’t need another plan or another damning report. They need action. They need leaders to start doing things differently. They need a system that supports them to move away from just talking and towards taking action.
But where do we start? We need to be the leaders to drive this change. It takes communities and collective involvement across sectors, breaking down silos to create lasting sustainable change. In doing so, we will engage the leaders in government. We need to take a proactive leadership role in communities to unify towards a common agenda, thereby creating communities where children, women and families are free from violence. This type of leadership is greater than consulting with the services and community on things that don’t work; we need to be innovative, creative and most importantly be adaptive in our thinking and leadership for sustainability and real change.
The type of leadership required uses data and clearly understands the number of families and children who are affected by domestic violence, the proportion of these families who are able to access support, and the number of perpetrators who are held accountable. We need data on a regular basis so that we can track progress. Data is knowledge and knowledge is power, the power to create measurable results.
Getting to know the story behind those numbers should then inform what we can do differently; it allows for truly innovative ways to address domestic violence in our communities. Flexibility in funding contracts leads to innovation in communities to address these complex issues, empowering communities to work collaboratively to drive change.
Choosing a common result to work towards with the whole community, gathering of data to monitor progress, analysing it and using it to come up with innovative solutions is the discipline leaders need to create change. This is the leadership our communities need. Collaborative, data driven, accountable, adaptive leadership. I don’t want to see another plan. I don’t want to see another report. I want to see a change for those one million children who are living in fear of violence every day. That’s who should give us the drive to do something differently.
This is why we at Clear Impact do what we do. We can contribute to making a difference for children and families through offering a disciplined framework to leaders. So, if you want to become an effective leader and create change in the community, talk to us. We want to help.
Clear Impact Australia has a Leadership Program that will commence in the New Year with delivery nationally. If you are interested in this program click on the email address below to contact us and learn more:
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