St Vincent's Open Support open 'Core & Cluster' Crisis Accommodation

04 Dec 2023

A vital crisis accommodation facility “The Cottage” was recently opened by The Hon Justine Elliott, Assistant Minister for Social Services. Consisting of 8 purpose-built, self-contained units, the new facility can accommodate up to 32 families or 102 individuals per year.

Adopting a “Core and Cluster Model”, The Cottage uses an innovative approach that allows for independent living and privacy while also providing access to supports. Under the Core and Cluster model, self-contained accommodation is located next to a ‘core’, which provides access to services such as counselling, legal assistance, education and employment support.

The Cottage is operated by Open Support, an arm of St Vincent’s committed to providing outreach for the most vulnerable members of our community. In this case, three levels of support are provided: Crisis, Transitional & Outreach. An important feature of the facility is that all children up to 18 years of age can be accommodated with their mother.

“With a key mandate to serve the ‘unmet needs’ of those who slip through the gaps of other community services, inclusivity is a major focus of ours, where all cultures, ages and beliefs are welcome - particularly for women with precarious visa status. Referrals mostly come from the NSW DFV Line, but clients can be self-referred,” said Katie Viviers, CEO St Vincent’s Clinic.

At The Cottage, Case Managers support clients for up to 3 months in crisis and then up to a further 2 years through our Transitional and Outreach Programs, where clients are supported in their own private rental homes. Furthermore, The Cottage’s Child Wellbeing Advocate – focuses solely on the needs to the child (physical, social and emotional, educational development).

“These wrap around supports mean that women are less likely to go back to their perpetrators or unsafe environments - with only 1 client returning last year.
Open Support, gives each client a keyring that has their name engraved on it, which they can proudly attach the key to their new home. For many clients, it’s been the first time they’ve had their own key, to their own place, with their name on it - creating a feeling of being seen and heard.

In NSW there are approximately 2,500 reports of domestic violence to the police every month – but this likely represents only 40% of actual incidents due to underreporting (NCOSS, 2020).

According to the 2022 report (The National Homicide Monitoring Program), in 2019-20, there were 45 intimate partner homicides; 36 of these were female victims (80 per cent). This averages to approximately one woman being killed by an intimate partner every 10 days (Plan 4 Women’s Safety 2022), with Australian women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner (ABS, 2017).

The Cottage was funded by the Australia Government Department of Social Services and the generous donors and supporters of Open Support.

opening day

Left - Right: Katie Viviers, CEO St Vincent's Clinic; Hon. Justine Elliott; and Chris Blake, CEO SVHA