Our Focus
The core of SPEAQ’s work is supporting the work of services and practitioners who provide Domestic and Family Violence Intervention Programs (also known as Men’s Behaviour Change Programs). We also welcome the involvement of services and practitioners engaged in other forms of direct work with men who have used Domestic Violence or Family Violence.
SPEAQ operates at both a practitioner level and a management level
Historically, and today, supporting practitioners is our main focus.
Our interests and activities also go beyond practitioner roles, supporting program managers and coordinators in their work with relevant programs.
Domestic and Family Violence prevention sector support
We work on supporting and developing the domestic and family violence prevention sector in many ways, including activities such as:
- a monthly online Community of Practice for practitioners, including victim advocates
- quarterly general meetings addressing current sector issues in Qld
- an annual professional development conference called the SPEAQ Forum,
- collaboration with WorkUP Qld, the state’s DFV workforce development agency, to provide specialist professional development and training events and workforce development activities
- the SPEAQ website as a platform for networking, discussion, collaboration and information dissemination.
Liaison with Government
SPEAQ has been liaising closely with the Qld Government for many years and is a key stakeholder in the Domestic and Family Violence prevention sector.
- The SPEAQ secretary or other representatives regularly attend consultations and workshops with the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women in relation to DFV sector reforms.
- SPEAQ played a key role in the development of the Department of Communities’ Professional Practice Standards for Working with Men who Perpetrate Domestic and Family Violence, and the accompanying Professional Practice Principles, both published in 2007.
We have made a number of formal submissions to the Qld government on domestic violence matters over the last few years, including in response to the following:
- Consultation Paper – Queensland Whole of Government Strategy to Target Domestic and Family Violence (2008)
- Review of the Qld Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 1989 (2010)
- Consultation Draft – Domestic and Family Violence Protection Bill 2011 (2011)
- Inquiry on strategies to prevent and reduce criminal activity in Queensland (2014)
- Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence (2014)
- Review of the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (2016)
- Queensland Law Reform Commission review of proposed domestic violence disclosure scheme (2017)
- Proposed Queensland legislation governing public access to, and reporting of, sexual offence and domestic and family violence matters (2021)
- Joint Letter to Women’s Safety Ministers nationally (2021)
- Consultation Draft – Perpetrator Intervention Services Requirements (2022)
Media and Public Voice
We also work to inform and educate other professionals and the public as the voice of specialist professionals in the field of men’s DFV behaviour change work in Queensland.