The Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture Inc. (also known as Foundation House) provides services to advance the health, wellbeing and human rights of people of refugee backgrounds in Victoria who have experienced torture or other traumatic events in their country of origin or while fleeing those countries.
The organisation was established in Melbourne in 1987 and is non-denominational, politically neutral and non-aligned. It is constituted as a not-for-profit organisation managed by an elected Board of Management. Our work is funded by the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments, charitable organisations and donations from private individuals.
The main areas of our work are:
• Providing services to clients in the form of counselling, advocacy, family support, group work, psycho-education, information and complementary therapies
• Working with client communities to improve their capacity to access the services they need and to enable them to support recovery
• Offering professional and organisational development, consultancy and resources to assist health, education, employment and other community service providers, to enhance the responsiveness of their services to the needs of people of refugee backgrounds
• Working with the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments to ensure that policies and programs have proper regard to the needs of people of refugee backgrounds
• Conducting and contributing to research about the needs of people of refugee backgrounds and the best possible ways of meeting those needs
Working throughout Victoria, Foundation House is a state-wide agency offering services in metropolitan, regional and rural areas. We have over 200 staff working across five main locations.
Our Head Office is located in Brunswick. Our Metropolitan Offices are located in Dallas (Northern), Dandenong (South Eastern), Ringwood (Eastern) and Sunshine (Western).
We also provide services in partnership with other agencies in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Mildura, Shepparton, Swan Hill and the Latrobe Valley.
The offices at Dallas, Dandenong, Ringwood and Sunshine accommodate multi-disciplinary teams providing services to clients from refugee backgrounds as well as relevant administrative and support staff.
The Brunswick head office accommodates:
- Staff providing services to clients from refugee backgrounds
- The Chief Executive Officer and Direct Service Program Manager
- Central administrative functions including administration, finance, human resources, occupational health and safety, information management, information technology and communications.
- Sector Development and Partnership teams which encompass Early Years, Schools Support Program, Ucan2, Professional and Organisational Development (POD) and the Victorian Refugee Health Network.
- Policy and Research
Foundation House is a member of the Forum of Australian Services for Survivors of Torture and Trauma. FASSTT is a network of Australia’s eight specialist rehabilitation agencies that work to reduce the impact of torture and trauma on individuals, families and communities.
For more information about Foundation House and our work:
In Our Own Words has been produced to commemorate our 30th anniversary in 2017 and as a testament to our clients and our work. It is a companion piece to More Than Just Words, produced for our 20th anniversary, and continues to document the contribution our organisation makes to supporting survivors of torture, and to the wider community.
