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A new national resource for frontline workers 

Safer Futures Toolkit. A new national resource for frontline workers

Refugee women often carry the weight of trauma, fear and uncertainty when seeking help. The Safer Futures Toolkit, launched by RACS is helping frontline workers recognise that and respond with care.

The Toolkit brings together insights from hundreds of women with lived experience and is already being used across Australia to strengthen traumainformed practice. It is part handbook, part reminder: that every service encounter is a chance to restore dignity, agency and hope.

Co-designed with refugee women and developed with partners including the Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors, the Toolkit offers clear, practical guidance for lawyers, caseworkers, health staff and interpreters supporting women at risk of gender-based violence. It shows how small changes, from language and setting to timing and tone, can transform a woman’s experience of safety and trust.

The Toolkit brings together insights from hundreds of women with lived experience and is already being used across Australia to strengthen traumainformed practice. It is part handbook, part reminder: that every service encounter is a chance to restore dignity, agency and hope.

Women seeking asylum in Australia face overlapping risks such as gender-based violence, poverty and visa uncertainty. Through its Women at Risk program, the Refugee Advice and Casework Service provides free, specialist legal clinics where women seeking asylum can safely get help and be heard.

Each consultation takes place in a supportive, trauma-informed setting, where women can discuss visas, safety and family protection with lawyers who understand their experiences. The service achieves lasting legal outcomes, such as permanent residency for survivors, while helping women rebuild a sense of safety, stability and control over their lives.

Australia / Justice for women and girls

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