Illawarra Women's Trauma Recovery Centre marks six months of 'discovery, challenges and hope'

Less than a year after opening its doors, the Illawarra’s Australia-first Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre has changed the lives of almost 200 women.

Maree Kerr took the helm as CEO of the new centre six months ago, ahead of its official opening in September 2024 – although the centre began seeing clients earlier that same year.

Since September the centre has seen an average of nine new clients each week and has 160 active clients.

Thirty-two women have received the support they needed from the service and have stepped forward into the next chapter of their lives.

“We know recovery from trauma isn’t linear, and being discharged doesn’t mean they won’t need us again in the future,” Maree said.

“But to see those glimmers of hope, that’s pretty special.”

The service provides wraparound access to support services critical to women leaving abusive relationships, such as the Women’s Legal Service, Aboriginal Legal Service, the NDIS, Centrelink and employment services.

This spares women the trauma of telling their story over and over again to different agencies.

Maree said it was no easy task to pioneer a brand-new model of support for women and children who had experienced domestic violence, but the centre was off to a promising start.

“It’s been a time of discovery,” she said.

“It has certainly had its challenges but also some really beautiful moments with our clients.

“We know the service is needed, and if we get it right and the government funds more of these centres around Australia then we’ve done our job.”

One of those challenges was a widely-publicised dispute between staff and management.

Staff claimed their workload was excessive, and they were exposed to vicarious trauma without adequate training or support.

SafeWork NSW issued three improvement notices to the centre, and a number of frontline workers left ahead of the official opening in September.

Maree said the dispute was “disappointing”, and defended the centre’s practices.

“We’re a start-up, and that means new ideas and developing policies and procedures,” she said.

“We provide internal supervision as well as external supervision, where we pay for our staff to speak to a psychologist about work, cases or themselves once a month.

“We have wellness days every quarter, staff have access to an employee assistance program, and we give additional leave over Christmas.

“The amount of training staff have undertaken around vicarious trauma is a level I have never seen before.

“I know from a personal integrity point of view that I’m doing the right thing.”

Despite the rocky start the centre has grown the services it is able to offer to women who walk through the doors.

Group classes and therapies, such as self-compassion classes, walking groups and art therapy all offer alternative ways for women to process what has happened to them.

Malika Rees runs a singing group and board games group for women at the centre. She said finding ways to connect with others was a key part of healing.

“When you have been through trauma, especially if you experienced trauma as a child, you can lose that sense of play,” she said.

“Board games can be a way to recover that, as well as being a healthy way to interact with other people and keep our brains challenged.

“Community singing is really important for that sense of community and self-expression.

“As vital as counselling is, there are so many ways we heal. When life is hard and stressful and traumatic it’s so important to find a way to get in touch with the sense of joy we are all entitled to.”

The centre has a demanding year ahead. Although the Federal Government gave $25 million funding (over five years) in 2022, the current site is only a temporary one.

Maree said the centre would produce data that demonstrated its success and results in the hopes it would receive ongoing funds for a permanent location.

“The framework is not going to be the same for every woman, but we do need to measure success for grants and funding,” she said.

“We know the service is needed, but we’ve got to prove ourselves; it has to show in our data and research that it’s viable to make the case for that permanent home.”