It has been a strong start to the year for One Tree Community Services Inc. (One Tree). In January 2025, we were awarded the contract to deliver a new safe house in Leonora, Western Australia (WA).
Building strong communities
Leonora is a small and isolated community. Located 832km north-east of Perth in the Goldfields-Esperance region, the town is in an area we know well.
For the past ten years, we have been operating a safe house in the neighbouring town of Laverton. Our Laverton service provides respite to women and children escaping violence. This includes 24-hour emergency accommodation, community outreach, early intervention and prevention, ongoing case management and follow-up support.
Since 2015, we have supported more than 6,300 women and children in the area. Now, we will have even more capacity to work with these remote communities and empower women to break the cycle of violence.
Support services in Leonora
The Leonora service will operate from a private house in a safe and accessible location. Building works are currently underway.
The safe house will have similarities to our Laverton service. It will use the same 24-hour, on-call model. All year round, women and children will have access to emergency accommodation and support services at no cost to them.
Educational programs
Our team will run regular educational programs on a range of topics including:
• Types of family and domestic violence
• Power and control dynamics
• Gender inequality
• Healing and confidence building
Community outreach
The safe house will be available in times of crisis, but early intervention and follow-up support is equally important.
We will run community outreach services and programs within a 3-hour radius of Leonora. This will be led by a local team member who is an expert on the community.
A culturally safe space
One Tree practices a both ways approach. We deeply value the expertise of Traditional Owners and look to local people to guide our service delivery.
At the Leonora safe house, we will ensure that local people operate the service. We will also engage with the community to ensure the design and set-up of the service is culturally safe.
Working with local communities
Our service delivery will take a collaborative approach. There are several existing programs in Leonora that provide family and domestic violence support. Our aim is to work with these organisations and tailor our services to the needs of the community.
Our Registered Training Organisation (RTO) will also enable us to train and upskill community members. There is potential to run traineeships at local schools, as well.
Looking ahead
One Tree currently provides family and domestic violence support services in WA and the Northern Territory. We are grateful for the opportunity to work closely with the community in Leonora and expand our service delivery in regional WA.
While building works are underway, our team will operate an interim service model. This will likely include educational programs and community outreach. We anticipate this commencing in April 2025, and continuing until the building works are completed.
The Department of Communities in WA has committed $1.7 million towards the operation of the new safe house. We look forward to opening the service in the near future.
Leonora imagery courtesy of Shire of Leonora
