Safe Families Safe Pets
Research shows that men who are abusive to their family members may also be violent to animals.
SAFE FAMILIES SAFE PETS (SFSP) is a fostering service started by the Patricia Giles Centre with advice from the RSPCA and initial funding from the Attorney–Generals department.
SFSP coordinates and supports families with a dog who are going into a women's refuge to have their dog temporarily fostered (3 months) by a voluntary foster carer. The SFSP worker is the link between the dog owner and the foster carer, neither owner or carer have direct contact, this is to ensure the safety of everyone. The SFSP worker assesses the dog, its background and a health and temperament check is made by a vet before the dog is placed in foster care.
Foster carers are supported by the SFSP worker and covered by PGC public liability insurance.
Interested in being a foster carer? Call 08 9300 0340 for more information.
Building Animal Relationships with Kids (BARK)
BARK is 7 week therapeutic program for children who have lived in family violence and have either lost a pet (due to leaving their home) or begun hurting animals due to exposure to family violence. The group aims to:
- Increase the children's levels of empathy, trust and promote healing from loss.
- Improve self esteem in children as they learn how to care for animals (the program uses guinea pigs and rats).
- Provide a supportive environment to discuss their feelings of loss, grief and confusion due to their experiences of family violence.
- The program is run at a RSPCA venue and is targeted at primary school aged children.
For further information about when the program runs contact the Patricia Giles Centre on 08 9300 0340.
This program does not receive ongoing funding and we are a looking for groups to sponsor the programs delivery.