Annie North Inc.

Annie North supports women, children and young people who have experienced family violence or intimate partner violence

Annie North has been in operation since 1989, offering crisis and transitional support accommodation/refuge services for women, children and young people who are escaping domestic and/or family violence.

Annie North has a state-wide catchment and is located within the Loddon region in Central Victoria, Australia.

The organisation is growing and is proud of the development of a “Core and Cluster” 24-hour refuge facility, complementing our existing high security refuge and transitional properties. Annie North also provides the Family Violence After Hours Response for the Loddon Region.

"All women and children have the right to live free from domestic, family and community violence to achieve physical, emotional and spiritual well-being"

Case Management

Women, children and young people who stay in Annie North accommodation are supported to plan for a safe future. Case Managers provide support to set and achieve goals; safety plan; and advocate for women, children and young people to have the best possible outcomes. The Annie North Case Management Team works closely in partnership with other services to provide targeted referrals and co-ordination that centres on women, children and young people as the experts of their own journey. Children and young people’s views and needs are considered in their own right and every Case Manager has a focus on supporting women, children and young people to heal and recover from their experience of family violence.

Some of the ways Case Management can support you:

Emotional support and someone non-judgemental to talk to about your experiences
Assessing risk and planning for safety
Providing support at Court or with Police
Material aid and financial assistance
Advice and options so you can make informed decisions
Support to repair bonds with your children
Referrals and advocacy with other services
Assistance to find safe, stable and affordable housing

Client Services and
Case Management

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Accommodation

Annie North provides crisis and transitional support and refuge accommodation to women and children who are escaping domestic and/or family violence. Annie North has a state-wide catchment and is located within the Loddon region in Central Victoria, Australia.

Short-term Crisis and Refuge
Accommodation

Annie North operates 2 refuges in Central Victoria and has nomination rights to 8 Transitional Housing Management (THM) properties.

Our Secure Women’s Refuge Facility is comprised of individual self-contained units with their own private backyards, surrounding a communal garden, playground and barbeque area. The units vary in size to cater for both single women or for larger families. All units are fully furnished and linen is provided. The Facility has disability access and one of the units is fully wheelchair accessible.

Our refuge locations are not publicly advertised and the Secure Women’s Refuge Facility is gated and secure. We have secure parking onsite for clients. Annie North staff are located onsite 24/7 in a separate office building that includes counselling rooms and multipurpose areas.

Through our local housing organisation, we also have nomination rights over 8 THM properties. These are individual homes located throughout Central Victoria and provide a secure base for our clients who are awaiting permanent or more long term housing. After a stay in refuge, women and children may move into one of these properties if it is safe to do so.

"The standard of accommodation is excellent and the level of cleanliness was remarkable. The facilities are well thought out for families and clearly have the children's safety at heart."
Annie North Client

Therapeutic Support

Annie North Therapeutic Practitioners provide interventions tailored to the needs of the individual.

Depending on the needs of our clients, we offer groups for women, groups for children and young people, sessions for individuals, siblings or mothers and children together.

Therapeutic practitioners can offer various ways of working to suit you. Therapeutic work does not have to mean “going into therapy” or sitting down and talking about painful events. The Therapeutic Practitioners are flexible and focused on helping you process and recover from your experiences.

For adults therapeutic support might look like:

Doing art
Gardening or being outdoors
Making something with craft materials
Counselling
Understanding family violence
Learning and growing
Focusing on yourself
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Existential Therapy
Pet Loss Therapy
Storytelling and Writing for Personal Healing

For infants, children and young people therapeutic support might be about:

Play
Art and craft activities
Getting messy
Trying out something new in a safe place
Telling stories and singing songs
Learning about boundaries or feelings
Identity
Coping with change
Respectful relationships

A variety of modalities and practice approaches combine to make our therapeutic support centred on clients and responsive to a changing situation.

Our support is:

Trauma-Informed and based in Specialist Family Violence knowledge
Holding clients at the centre as experts in their own lives
Focused on people’s strengths, choices and dignity
Looking towards solutions for a safe future free of violence

"Women who have attended the Women's Group report loving the opportunity for sharing and the growing connections with each other"

Unfortunately, we do not have ongoing or Government funding for our Art Therapy or Garden Therapy Programs. We have developed and implemented these from the generous support of one-off donations from the community.

If you would like to see something tangible with proven positive outcomes for your donation, please use the donation button below.

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"Art therapy can be a healing outlet. It allows victim/survivors to tell their stories and heal from these experiences"

Safe, Thriving and Connected Program

Safe, Thriving and Connected is an innovative and integrated safety and recovery approach that delivers specialist therapeutic interventions to victim/survivors experiencing and/or recovering from family violence.

Safe, Thriving and Connected has been developed by The Loddon Gender Equality and Violence Prevention Consortium. Members of the consortium have a long history of working in partnership and are experienced service providers in the delivery of integrated and coordinated specialist family violence services and system responses across the Loddon region.

Annie North is excited to be involved in this program, which provides a range of trauma informed and evidence based therapeutic programs and services to support recovery and healing.

Other consortium members include:
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‍Centre For Non-Violence (Lead Agency)
Women's Health Loddon Mallee
Centre Against Sexual Assault Central Victoria
Cobaw Community Health‍

For more information and referral forms can be found here.

Therapeutic Garden Project

2017-18 saw Annie North develop an innovative and therapeutic garden project. The project was originally designed for young people and children, however the positive effects from the project (including a sensory garden) could also be seen in the adult women we supported.

While the Therapeutic Garden Project has already produced wonderful feedback and outcomes for those that have been involved, we are currently seeking a sponsor to allow us to again employ a project worker who can run this very valuable healing and trauma recovery program.
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Support Us

Please contact us if you would like more information.