Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre - Women · Building · Belonging
  1. Home
  2. Strengthening Families Team

Strengthening Families Team

 


Aboriginal women in the Fitzroy Valley have led the creation of safe, strong and nourishing communities for tens of thousands of years. That leadership continues today through Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre.

Since the establishment of the Marninwarntikura Women’s Group in 1991, and the opening of the Women’s Shelter in 1995, local women have set the agenda for change, building community-led responses to family and domestic violence grounded in culture, strength and self-determination.

The Shelter was the first funded service at MWRC and remains at the heart of the organisation. It continues to provide crisis safety and immediate support for women and children escaping violence.

In 2003, the introduction of legal and family support services through the Family Violence Prevention Legal Service (FVPLS) expanded this work, ensuring women and families could access culturally safe legal representation alongside therapeutic and practical support.

Today, these services operate together as the Strengthening Families Team.

One Integrated Model of Support

Strengthening Families brings together crisis response, legal assistance and therapeutic care into a single, coordinated service system.

This includes:

  • Crisis safety and refuge through the Women’s Shelter

  • Legal support and advocacy through the FVPLS

  • Therapeutic and case management support to promote healing and recovery

  • Outreach and community-based engagement across the Fitzroy Valley

Rather than operating as separate programs, these services are delivered as one integrated model, ensuring women and families experience seamless, wraparound support.

Women may enter the service at any point, whether through crisis accommodation, legal need, outreach, or therapeutic engagement and are supported across their journey toward safety, stability and long-term wellbeing.

Healing, Safety and Self-Determination

All Strengthening Families work is grounded in a trauma-informed, healing-aware and rights-based framework.

We recognise that family, domestic and sexual violence is deeply connected to the ongoing impacts of colonisation, and that healing must be community-led, culturally grounded and relational.

Our approach focuses on:

  • Prioritising safety for women and children

  • Supporting self-determination and informed choice

  • Strengthening family capacity and wellbeing

  • Walking alongside women through long-term healing and recovery

This is not just crisis response. It is a sustained, relational model that supports women to rebuild their lives on their own terms.

1800RESPECT

As part of this integrated model, MWRC delivers specialist counselling through 1800RESPECT, the national domestic, family and sexual violence support service.

Our team of Specialist FDV Counsellors provides:

  • Free and confidential counselling and support

  • 24 hours a day, 7 days a week access

  • Information, safety planning and referral pathways

Support is available via phone, text, online chat and video call.

Call 1800 737 732 or text 0458 737 732.

Walking Together

Strengthening Families reflects the strength, leadership and vision of Fitzroy Valley women.

It is a model built over time, grounded in community, and continuously evolving to meet the needs of women, children and families.

Walking together, we create safer communities, support healing and build stronger futures.