Women supporting women to build a life beyond bars
Breaking the cycle of violence is at the heart of the Kunga Stopping Violence Program, which supports women incarcerated in the Alice Springs Correctional Centre…
It’s about getting the right help from the moment someone is imprisoned and ensuring they continue to be supported after they are released so they can get back on track and stay there – for good.
While in prison, women participate in an intensive violence-prevention education program to help understand what led them to incarceration in the first place. They come together as a group and share stories, cook, and paint as they learn about the impact of trauma on their lives and their offending.
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Supporting women beyond bars is crucial for breaking the cycle of trauma and violence. Many face challenges like unemployment, poverty, and abuse, so strong relationships with caseworkers help them transition to a stable life outside.
Kunga Stopping Violence Program co-ordinator Rachel says effectively responding to the impacts of trauma on women’s lives is key to preventing future offending and incarceration.
“Healing is the ultimate goal,” she says. “But some people find it very difficult to heal if they’re homeless or if they’re experiencing domestic and family violence, or if their children have been removed from them.”
After prison, each of the women receive ongoing support from local caseworkers who support their clients and their families well into the future with supports like home visits, connecting them to other services, offering social programs, providing a place to drop in at the office, and giving mentoring.
The Kunga women are more than just clients; They are resilient mothers, sisters, aunties, nieces, daughters, grandmothers, wives, partners and friends that, when given the chance, want to turn their lives around.
Many say the program gave them the strength to face and overcome their past traumas and learn how to express their feelings in a healthy way.
The Kunga program … helps us to look forward to see how [the] future will be [when we] get out of this prison.
Kunga Stopping Violence Program participant
The Kunga Stopping Violence Program is as unique as it is valuable but only has the capacity to provide 20 women a year with this level of support and care.
There’s currently no equivalent program in Darwin.
Ramping up is essential to help more women break the cycle and prevent future incarceration.
Listen to the Kunga women talk about what the program means to them: Stories from the Kunga stopping violence program
Kunga is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning ‘woman’.
Kunga program helps us to choose, we have a choice to make of who we are … choosing to be with friends and family and staying strong, because violence is not part of our culture and it’s never meant to be in our life, our life story.
Kunga Stopping Violence Program participant
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