Status:
Current

Activity details

The Department of Justice delivers the criminogenic Not Our Way (NOW) program, which is a family and domestic violence program based on the Safe at Home program. It has been further developed in collaboration with Aboriginal staff and stakeholders to ensure the content is culturally relevant and responsive and is delivered in a manner that suits the learning styles of Aboriginal participants. The program is suitable for participants with offences against their spouse and/or family members. The NOW program must be cofacilitated with a person who identifies as Aboriginal. The community-based program has been designed as an open format program that has entry points at each module (excluding module 5) to provide flexibility around commencement dates for participants. This program is facilitated both in prison and in the community.

Implementation progress update

The NOW program was launched in 2014. It is delivered in closed format within custodial environments and rolling format in community-based environments. Communicare and Anglicare deliver the NOW program at a variety of regional Western Australian locations and throughout the Perth Metropolitan area.

On 17 February 2024 a long-term impact evaluation was completed. A total of 224 participants engaged in the program from 2015 to 2021 were included in the evaluation sample, of these 103 completed the program. At the time of the study census, NOW program completers were 54% less likely to reoffend in the 3.5 years following program completion and offence severity also decreased. The findings suggest the NOW program is an effective community rolling family and domestic violence program for Aboriginal men who complete the program in its entirety. The outcomes also suggest that non-completion of the program may be linked to increased offence severity post program.

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More information

DSS4905 | Permalink: www.dss.gov.au/node/4905