Who we are

FVREE is the lead specialist family violence service in Melbourne’s Eastern Metropolitan Region. We work across the continuum of family violence including primary prevention, early intervention, response and recovery.

FVREE is a not-for-profit organisation, primarily funded by the State Government of Victoria. FVREE also receives grants and donations from other sources. 

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  • We provide a broad range of integrated response support services for women, children and their pets who are responding to family violence.

  • Our training, education and primary prevention programs reach throughout Melbourne’s eastern areas and some extend across Victoria and Australia.

  • We prioritise the safety of women and children as a fundamental human right, while working to ensure perpetrators are held accountable for using violence.

  • We support women to make informed choices through programs and services that are individual, sensitive and evidence-based.

  • Our highly trained staff provide support, information, case management, safety planning, community education, programs for pet safety and a strong network of referral pathways to other services.

The area we service

FVREE is the lead specialist family violence service in the eastern metropolitan region of Melbourne and our response support services, education, training and primary prevention programs are available to more than 1.1 million people across the municipalities of:

  • Boroondara
  • Manningham
  • Whitehorse
  • Knox
  • Monash
  • Maroondah
  • Yarra Ranges

Our History

FVREE, formerly EDVOS, has been serving the community and supporting women and children responding to family violence for over 28 years.

EDVOS was established in 1994, as an amalgamation of family violence services provided by Outer East Domestic Violence Service and Inner East Women’s Service, operating from a small residential home in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

EDVOS programs and services have expanded over the years to better support women, children, pets and animals responding to family violence in the eastern metropolitan region of Melbourne. We work along the family violence continuum and include primary prevention, early-intervention, response and recovery, which is underpinned by the current reforms led by Family Safety Victoria on behalf of the Victorian Government.

We continue our productive partnership and strong relationship with Victoria Police.

We’re proud of our organisation’s legacy and continue to maintain a strong focus on the safety of women and children and the accountability of perpetrators of family violence.

FVREE Board and Management

Read more about our board and management

FVREE Governance and Leadership 

Our Governance & Leadership Structure

Our Vision

For our community to be free from family violence, where everyone is safe. 


Our Values and Guiding Principles

The following guiding principles underpin the way we work as an organisation and with others to realise our vision.
  • Intersectional Feminism We understand that family violence and the abuse of power is multidimensional and that the impact of family violence is compounded by intersecting forms of oppression and inequality (e.g. gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation etc), creating overlapping forms of discrimination. This results in higher rates or more severe forms of violence, as well as greater barriers to accessing support and safety for some communities more so than others. We recognise the gendered nature of the drivers of family violence and how women and children are disproportionately affected by it, which is why we prioritise them in the work that we do.
  • Courage and Leadership – We are courageous in our pursuit of preventing family violence, leading and influencing change within the family violence and mainstream sectors and broader community that is focused on delivering positive outcomes for victim survivors. We do not shy away from challenging the status quo and doing things differently.
  • Person-Driven – We place victim survivors at the centre of all decisions. We listen and respond to their input and feedback on the planning, design, delivery and evaluation of our services and programs to ensure they remain client-centred.
  • Evidence informed and continuous learning – Our work and approach is informed by evidence (noting that this evidence can come in the form of formal research or practice wisdom). We actively seek opportunities to continuously improve and innovate, including by piloting (and measuring the impact of) innovative models of service and program delivery.
  • Transparency and Accountability – We are transparent in our conduct and hold ourselves to account for delivering high quality services and programs. We seek to;
    • challenge perpetrators to take responsibility for their actions and to change their behaviour and;
    • engage organisations and communities to ensure that everyone is playing a role in preventing and responding to family violence (including addressing the drivers of family violence) and supporting the ongoing recovery of victim survivors.
  • Respect and Collaboration – We value and respect the expertise of victim survivors and our stakeholders, working with others to maximise the impact of our collective work through genuine and meaningful collaboration. We endeavour to strengthen our collaboration and integration with both existing and new partners.

Our Theory of Change

Picture a community that is free from family violence and where everyone is safe. FVREE believes this is achievable and that our work will contribute to this change. This is the reason that we exist, and our Theory of Change has been developed to guide our work over the next 7 to 10 years and to track our progress towards the change we wish to see. The Theory of Change identifies and links who we will work with and the pathways we will follow to achieve our long-term desired outcomes and vision.

our theory of change (digital)
our theory of change (pdf)


Strategic Plan 2021 – 2024

As a leading specialist family violence organisation, our three year strategic ambition is to drive bold and innovative change to break the cycle of family violence and ensure that victim survivors are safe and able to thrive. We do this by working in partnership with victim survivors, the community and broader service system. The following 4 Strategic Priorities are a focus over the next three years:

  1. Experience and Outcomes To enhance and expand the outcomes achieved for victim survivors and the broader community (through delivering services and programs across the continuum of family violence prevention, early intervention, response and recovery) across the Eastern region of Melbourne and beyond.
  2. Integration and Collaboration  To collaborate with other organisations and service providers in a meaningful and sustainable way.
  3. Inclusion and Intersectionality To be an inclusive organisation that actively considers and applies an intersectional framework in the work that we do.
  4. Influence and Advocacy To strengthen our influence, share our knowledge and learn from others to drive positive change in the broader community and across the sectors that we operate in.
Our Strategic Plan 2021-24 (digital)
Our Strategic Plan 2021-24 (PDF)

Regional Family Violence Partnership (RFVP)

FVREE is the auspice agency for the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Family Violence Partnership (RFVP). The RFVP is an alliance of organisations committed to working together to build systems to improve safety and justice for women and children experiencing family violence and to hold perpetrators to account for their behaviour.

The RFVP supports the integrated regional family violence service system within the state-wide policy framework working closely with Family Safety Victoria and within the long term statewide strategic plans.


Risk Appetite Statement

This statement is developed recognising that the provision of family violence services is inherently a high-risk activity and that this risk is actively and consciously managed daily in line with best practice. We work in complex and challenging situations, and we take our commitment to our duty of care for our people very seriously.

We aim to minimise risk and will not knowingly make decisions that put our clients, including children and young people, their pets and animals; or our stafft risk of harm from their interactions with us.

Our Theory of Change and Strategic Plan guide our work to achieve our vision of a community free from violence where everyone is safe. We are continually striving to effect positive change for our clients and the broader community.

We have clear frameworks and documentation that govern how we work. This includes our values and guiding principles, codes of conduct, planning and reporting frameworks, quality management systems, delegated management decision-making frameworks and policies and procedures to create an inclusive, client centered culture that drives service and organisational excellence. We are open to change and are constantly seeking ways to improve what we do and how we do it.

We have very high standards for the quality of our service and program delivery, for information security, effective financial management, legislative compliance and respecting of privacy; and actively manage risk and opportunities to ensure we achieve these high standards.

We are willing to engage with higher levels of risk to support innovation, contemporary practice and approaches, where we believe the outcomes would benefit our clients.

We wish to manage risks and opportunities effectively to achieve our vision and have clearly expressed our risk appetite and tolerances for each individual risk category in a detailed Risk Tolerance Schedule below.


Accreditation

FVREE is proud to have been awarded full accreditation of three sets of quality standards in May 2020, meeting all required expectations with overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Led by the FVREE Quality team, the QIP assessors together with FVREE staff, undertook a fully remote review, due to the COVID-19 Government restrictions at that time, a first for all involved. The accreditation process was supported by newly implemented teleconferencing technology, online communication tools, as well as the use of phones, video recordings, remote presentations and photography to explore FVREE sites remotely.

FVREE is committed to continuous quality improvement and will use any recommended improvement areas to form the basis of a new three year Quality plan. With the development of a new strategic plan scheduled later this year, the outcomes from this assessment will also be incorporated to ensure a robust strategic planning process.

FVREE are grateful to the QIP assessors, FVREE staff and in particular the FVREE Quality team for all their hard work and commitment to best practice, quality performance and continuous improvement.

FVREE are proud to be awarded National Accreditation for the next three years.


FVREE acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of this land and recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community. FVREE pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging.


FVREE acknowledges people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) communities, their children, pets and other animals, who are responding to family violence in the community.

FVREE respects all people who are responding to family violence, regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age and ability.

FVREE is a child-focused and child safe organisation.

  FVREE acknowledges funding from the Victorian Government