Organisational CV
Women's Health Goulburn North East

Women’s Health Goulburn North East (WHGNE) is the government-funded specialist women's health service for the Goulburn Valley and North East Victoria.

WHGNE is a dynamic, independent, feminist organisation committed to improving the health, safety and wellbeing of women in the Goulburn Valley and North East Victoria. We are dedicated to promoting the health outcomes of all women, and to improving the delivery of health and community services for women in our local community.

We acknowledge and affirm the diversity, capability, strength, and resilience of women, and work to build on these strengths to achieve safer, fairer and more equitable social, environmental and economic outcomes for women.

To achieve this goal, we:

• Research women’s experiences of health to raise awareness, change attitudes, and influence service response.
• Are alert to the political environment, and work to uphold and advance women’s rights by influencing policy and planning.
• Provide professional training and education to develop skills and resources that empower local women, communities and service providers.
• Implement a range of integrated health promotion activities across the Hume region.
• Work in strong collaboration with women, organisations and communities.

Vision

An equitable and safe society for rural women and girls.

Mission

Improving the health, wellbeing and safety of women and girls.

Values

Our values include:

• Feminism: Working in the context of a strengths-based feminist framework.
• Human Rights: Protecting and promoting women’s economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights.
• Respect: Demonstrating respect for the women, organisations and communities we work with.
• Women-Centred: Placing the needs and voices of women at the centre of everything we do.
• Inclusiveness: Valuing diversity and inclusiveness without judgement.
• Excellence: A commitment to the highest standards in all our work.

Guiding Principles

Our guiding principles are:

• Women’s Voices: We engage with, listen to, and respond to women from different backgrounds, especially vulnerable groups.
• Partnership & Collaboration: We foster and maintain strong collaborative partnerships to drive change and improvements for women.
• Leadership: We provide leadership in integrated health promotion, research, advocacy, family violence prevention, community engagement and service support.
• Theory to Practice: We translate theory and research into practical strategies to improve women’s lives.
• Best Practice: We are committed to quality, transparency, flexibility, evaluation and innovation.
• People & Culture: We work in recognition of the unique needs, values, cultures and traditions of different women.
• Workplace Practices: We foster a workplace culture which promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff, and values their unique contributions.
• Accountability: We are accountable to the women, organisations, agencies and communities we work with.

Strategic Plan 2013-2017

The Board of Management, Women’s Health staff and key stakeholders have worked collaboratively to develop goals and objectives for the next four years which advance our vision to achieve an equitable and safe society for women and girls, and are underpinned by both state and national policy directions and our own evidence-based research.

For the period 2013-2017, our goals include:

Primary Prevention:
Address the underlying conditions that influence women’s health.

Research and Innovation:
Research current and emerging issues affecting women.

Service Support:
Foster collaborative partnerships which improve the health outcomes of women.

Communication & Promotion:
Expand the reach and influence of our work.

Organisational Excellence:
Have quality systems and practices to ensure organisational sustainability, improvement and innovation.

The Way We Work

Each woman who works at WHGNE brings her own individual values, beliefs and experiences to our organisation. One of the organisation’s greatest assets is that we have commonalities as well as differences.

• We take a woman-centred approach
• We are feminist
• We use a social model of health
• We work in many different ways
• We work in partnership
• We aim for sustainable change
• We endorse specialist women's services
• We recognise the experiences of rural women
• We provide direct support for individual women
• We evaluate what we do

Why Gender Matters

By incorporating gendered approaches into our work, that reflect women’s health experiences in the context of their broader lives, we can be more effective in reducing inequality and improving health and safety outcomes for women and children. Research, and the individual voices and stories of women, tell us that women gain the greatest health, economic and social benefit from specialist women’s health services. This, in turn, facilitates the potential for women, especially those who are most vulnerable, to lead full, healthy and productive lives, and to become active and connected members of the community.

Population Served

WHGNE provides services to a diverse population of women and girls across the Hume Region, particularly those who live in isolated rural areas, are disadvantaged, or are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The Hume Region comprises 18% of Victoria in area, some 40,427 square kilometres. It covers 12 local government areas and includes major towns of Wodonga, Wangaratta, Shepparton, Seymour, Mansfield and Benalla.

Governance & Staffing Structure

WHGNE is governed by a voluntary Board of Management, elected by our membership at each Annual General Meeting. WHGNE's daily operations are overseen by our Executive Officer, who reports to the Board of Management.We have the equivalent of nine full-time paid staff, and eight consistent volunteers.

Financial Management & Funding

• ABN: 75 815 140 163
• Incorporated Association (No. A0039392E)
• Not for Profit
• Non-government entity
• Endorsed Deductible Gift Recipient GST Registered
• Endorsed as an income tax exempt charitable entity
• Public Liability Insurance
• Compliant with Australia Accounting Standards

WHGNE has a history of sound financial management. WHGNE has grown from a funding base of $654,652 and an EFT staff of three in 2000, to funding in excess of $1 million and an EFT staff of nine in 2015.

As an Incorporated Association our finances are prepared in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards, and are maintained on MYOB Accounting Software. The organisation’s finances are audited annually; a requirement of our DHHS Service Agreement. The audited statements are reported annually to DHHS, Consumer Affairs Victoria and Australian Charity and Not For Profit Commission.

Our infrastructure costs are maintained at approximately 30% of annual expenditure, a proportion that compares favourably with organisations of a comparable size and income.

Our most recently audited financial reports and financial statements are available on the WHGNE website.

Our Recent Awards

2015 Winner Regional Achievement & Community Awards – Regional Safety Award 2015 winner for Bsafe
2014 Winner of a 2014 Resilient Australia Award in the Projects of National Significance category, for Gender & Disaster: Leading the Change
2014 Highly Commended Award for Advancing Financial Literacy in Australia: Keep Your Boat Afloat. Australian Financial Literacy Board Limited
2014 Gold Winner ACLW Leadership Award, ‘Sustaining Women’s Empowerment in Communities and Organisations’
2013 Vic Health Promotion Foundation Award, Knowledge and Understanding Family Violence after Natural Disaster Research: Breaking New Ground
2012 Highly Commended Award for Advancing Financial Literacy in Australia, Australian Government Financial Literacy Board
2010 Certificate of Merit (National) for Bsafe Pilot Project, Australian Crime and Violence Prevention
2010 Recognition of Excellence (National) for Bsafe Pilot Project, Australian Crime and Violence Prevention
2010 Certificate of Merit Award for Raped by a Partner Project, Australian Crime and Violence Prevention
2009 Reducing Inequalities Award/Gold Winner for Making Two Worlds Work Project, Victorian Public Healthcare (won in conjunction with Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation)

Our Work & Achievements

Summary
WHGNE is a dynamic, innovative service with a reputation for ground breaking work in the area of health promotion, research and training.

WHGNE delivers projects and services that respond to local, state and national policy priorities in: integrated health promotion, disaster response, prevention of violence against women, economic empowerment, research and education.

We work in strong collaboration with women, agencies and communities to influence policy and planning.

Primary Prevention – 
Integrated Health Promotion

WHGNE has had a long history of planning, implementing and evaluating evidence-based integrated health promotion across the region. This is evident through the number of awards and grants received throughout our history to date. We are funded for Integrated Health Promotion annually through the Department of Health and Human Services, Community and Women’s Health program.

Our primary prevention work focuses on; building the capacity of organisations, local governments and communities, to address health priorities from a determinants perspective, improving health outcomes, and working towards gender equity.

Our priorities for 2013-2017 are:

• Prevention of Violence against Women and Children – through providing specialised support, resources and workforce development to other organisations, and networks of community leaders across health, education, local government, and welfare settings
• Sexual and Reproductive Health – advocate and work to maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders in the community to ensure inclusive and accessible opportunities for women and girls, particularly those that may be further disadvantaged by barriers present in rural communities
• Healthy Eating from a gendered perspective – in partnership with other organisations, WHGNE aims to promote supportive communities and family friendly workplaces that enhance opportunities for breastfeeding

Research & Consultancy

WHGNE has a strong history of conducting evidence-based research into women’s experiences of health, in order to inform and influence policy and service response.

WHGNE has well established networks and links through almost two decades of community engagement, and works to assists professionals and communities to better recognise and understand the ways that gender impacts on people's lives. We have contributed to the research, evaluation and planning processes of a range of other organisations seeking to respond better to gender issues in their work, and/or enhance their research or health promotion roles.

WHGNE’s qualitative research project, The Way He Tells It: Relationships after Black Saturday was the first research conducted in Australia which identified and examined the link between natural disasters and violence against women. This was followed by the research report, Men on Black Saturday: Risks and opportunities for change, launched in 2013, which documented men’s experiences of the Black Saturday bushfires and the post-disaster recovery period.

In 2013, WHGNE released the research report, Preventing Violence Against Girls and Women Before it Occurs, which seeks to identity violence prevention programs and interventions for young people aged 12-25 years.  In 2010, WHGNE’s Raped by a Partner research report received a Certificate of Merit from the Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards.

Gender & Disaster

Since the publication of research reports, The Way He Tells It: Relationships after Black Saturday (WHGNE) and Men on Black Saturday: Risks and opportunities for change (WHGNE and Monash Injury Research Institute MIRI), WHGNE has worked in close collaboration with Women’s Health In the North (WHIN) and (MIRI) to bring a gender-focus to disaster policy, planning, training and practice.

This work is seeking to improve the support that men and women receive before and after disaster, mitigate risks to men and women’s health and wellbeing post-disaster, and build awareness of the critical need for attention to gender in disaster planning and community recovery.

Family Violence Prevention

WHGNE auspices and employs the Regional Integration Coordinator for the Ovens Murray Goulburn Integrated Family Violence Committee, and has done so for over a decade. The role of the coordinator is to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of the region’s initiatives, as well as identifying and offering community education and prevention opportunities. Recent work of the Committee has included the launch of a localised family violence website for both community and sector professionals; meeting training demands for professionals across all sectors (funded by the Committee and delivered by WHGNE); ongoing provision of essential resources; and improved referral pathways that provide a streamlined and consistent journey and outcomes for women and children experiencing family violence.

WHGNE were also successful in receiving a ‘Reducing Violence against Women and their Children’ grant from the Department of Justice and Regulation, under the Crime Prevention program. This funding spans the period 2013-2015 and supports primary prevention focused partnership projects across community service organisations and local government. Key stakeholders across the Hume region participated in a development process to create the Hume region Preventing Violence Against Women & Childrenstrategy, key outcomes from which include a community charter and the Courageous Conversations campaign.

Training & Education

WHGNE is the primary provider of training services on gender and health in the Hume region.  We provide professional training and education in the areas of family violence, family violence after disasters, respectful relationships, trauma and young children, and financial mentoring.

Our training services and resources are available to service providers, managers, planners, and peer educators.

WHGNE has also developed two comprehensive training packages on Family Violence after Natural Disaster and Men and Disasters, for use by health, community and emergency service workers.

Economic Empowerment

WHGNE is committed to improving the financial wellbeing and capacity of women through research, training, mentoring and resources. WHGNE administers a No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) for women, and was the first organisation to implement a NILS program designed specifically for women exiting family violence.

WHGNE has also developed a series of resources which address the often hidden issue of financial abuse, and aim to raise awareness of financial abuse as a form of family violence.

Our Partners

Our partners are women, service providers, local organisations, and local communities. We try to model collaborative approaches and resource sharing, and to facilitate the development of lasting and positive relationships. Local women are actively involved in the management of all our projects.

Members play an important part in our efforts to improve and sustain women's health within our communities. At present, we have over 50 individual and organisational members.

Contact Details
Women’s Health Goulburn North East
57 Rowan Street, Wangaratta, VIC, 3677
P: 03 5722 3009 | F: 03 5722 3020
E: whealth@whealth.com.au