What do we do?

• Family Dispute Resolution and Mediation
• Parenting plans and program for developing parenting skills
• Property and financial matters mediation and settlement
• Child Counselling
• Counselling for individuals, couples and families
• Financial Counselling and Capability
• Family Mental Health Support Services
• General advice and referrals for families and separating couples

We also deliver high quality consultancy and training services across Australia.

History of Better Place Australia

Better Place Australia has been in the business of helping people take back control over their lives for the past 30 years.

The organisation can trace its beginnings back to the Noble Park Conciliation Centre that opened its doors in 1985. This government funded pilot was aimed at testing the viability of community-based alternative to litigation involving family disputes. After rigorous evaluation by a government commissioned agency, the initiative was deemed to have ‘exceeded all expectations’.

From then on, Better Place Australia evolved into one of the most successful providers of relationship services in Victoria. It is now the state’s third largest recipient of federal government funding under the Families and Communities program.

Clients

Every day, Better Place Australia helps a growing number of people take back control over their lives. We have been able to do this because we stay true to our values – helping people build better relationships. In 2015/16, we provided expert support to more than 7,200 families – an increase of over 15% from the previous year – who were dealing with relationship issues and other related challenges.

Better Place Australia's doors are open to a wide range of people from all walks of life. Relationship issues can affect anyone. We make no distinction and provides services in a professional way. Our optimistic staff treat people with compassion and empower people to take back control of their lives.

Child Safety

Our organisation is committed to child safety.

We want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers.

We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children.

We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.

We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.

Our organisation is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks.

Our organisation has robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers.

Our organisations is committed to regularly training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks.

We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, the cultural safety of children from a culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability.

We have specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000.

Family Violence

Better Place Australia is responding to the grave and unabating presence of family violence in our society by adapting our services.

We have further enhanced our intake process to ensure early detection of the presence of family violence and provide an appropriate specialist service response and referral. Considering that up to 45% of our clients from certain services experience some form of family violence, we have introduced a Specialist Financial Counselling service and for our FDR clients, a   Pre-Mediation Service to safe start Mediation. In parallel to this we have strengthened our partnerships through the Women’s Legal Service.

A significant cohort of our clients are suffering from abuse, have the Sherriff at their door or experiencing a family crisis. 42% are on Centrelink benefits.