DVFREE Training

Download our free Guidelines for a DVFREE Workplace Programme, which may help you identify gaps in your programme and understand how to fill those gaps. The Guidelines will help you meet, and go beyond employers’ legal obligations under the Domestic Violence Victims’ Protection Act and other relevant laws.

Promote our free national Helpline as a source of support and information for people who experience domestic violence, as well as their support people.

First responders are peer support people for colleagues experiencing family violence in your workplace who can support employees experiencing domestic violence, and they can also support managers. This is a 6.5 hour long training, with required pre-learning, that helps First Responders to:

• understand the boundaries of the role
• recognise signs and respond safely and appropriately
• provide workplace support, safety and wellbeing planning, and refer to specialist community support and
• understand broadly how an employer can respond to employees who perpetrate domestic violence, and provide support to change

This training can be  delivered in person at your venue or online. Contact us now for more information or to book.

This is the same as our in-house first responder training.  We regularly deliver Open First Responder training in main city centres and online so that individuals can register to attend. If your organisation plans to train more than a few people, we strongly recommend in-house training so that the training can focus on the context of your particular organisation, and can help build a stronger team of first responders. Find out more or register now for one of these training sessions.

Managers play a key role in supporting a team member who experiences domestic violence and are most likely to see the signs and be able to ask some initial questions. DVFREE Tick partners may access the DVFREE Manager Online Learning Programme, included in our DVFREE Tick/Renewal fee.

Our best practice recommendation is to provide live training for initial manager training. Live training is 3.5 hours long

DVFREE training helps managers to:

• understand the boundaries of a manager’s role
• recognise signs and respond safely and with empathy
• provide workplace support, workplace safety and wellbeing planning, and support to connect with specialist community support, and
• understand broadly how an employer can provide accountability and support for employees who use harmful behaviour within a family and domestic relationship

Contact us for a more in-depth overview of DVFREE manager training.

We generally only deliver manager training for an organisation that has already trained some first responders. Read our Guidelines to understand why this is important.

This training is aimed at people who:

• Deal with customers impacted by domestic violence in their day to day work, eg, providing a service for customers experiencing vulnerability, or
• Support and advise frontline staff on how to respond to customers experiencing domestic violence, such as a group of team leaders.

This training is highly interactive for a maximum of 20 people.

Bespoke Training Options

Get in touch to discuss bespoke training to meet your organisation’s specific needs.

DVFREE Consultation – workplace and customer response

Our domestic violence experts are experienced at providing consultation and policy advice for a wide range of government, business, and not-for-profit organisations.

Our experts can review your domestic violence policy and other specific materials, such as the domestic violence content of your intranet or staff wellbeing guide.

We can also provide advice on policies that relate to your response to customers who experience domestic violence.

Contact us now to discuss your needs.

This module was created in collaboration by Westpac and Shine, and updated in 2023. It takes less than 1 hour to complete and provides a good introduction to family violence within a workplace context.

Awareness sessions

A Shine expert from our training team can speak to your group and help raise awareness of domestic violence. These sessions can help build a foundation for a domestic violence staff programme.

Be creative!

There are many ways to engage, inspire and educate staff about domestic violence.

• Read about stories and videos you can use to raise awareness.
• Participate in Shine’s Light it Orange campaign to raise funds and awareness.
• Ask your local domestic violence service provider about how you can support their work.