About WESNET (Women’s Services Network)
An overview of the company (600 characters): Wesnet is a national women’s peak body with over 300 members that are women’s frontline agencies specialising in family and, domestic violence, and sexual violence. Wesnet is the leading non-government organisation in Australia strategically addressing Tech Abuse against women in threatening and violent situations.
WESNET established and runs Safety Net Australia, a core service that empowers and protects Australian women from abusers who utilise technology to surveil, monitor, stalk, invade privacy with the goals of coercion and harm manifesting as physical, emotional sexual or financial abuse, while at the same time ensuring that women are able to remain on technology. WESNET provides resources and toolkits to help survivors of technology abuse and other forms of gender-based violence stay safely connected. Since 2014 WESNET has trained over 13,000 frontline workers, police, magistrates and others who work with survivors of domestic and sexual violence and regularly works with governments, telecommunications and technology companies around awareness, policy and improvements that recognise and respond to Tech Abuse in the context of violence against women.
ABOUT OUR WORK
4TH TECHNOLOGY SAFETY SUMMIT
Australia's only national conference on technology and violence against women. WESNET, Australia's leading NGO on technology abuse, brings together experts to discuss technology-facilitated abuse in our annual Technology Safety Summit held virtually this year on 20 - 22 September 2022.
Our Tech Summit brings together national and international experts on technology safety and violence against women. Some of this year's keynote speakers include Joanna Knox, from Telstra; Nicole Lee, Survivor Advocate; Erica Olsen, Safety Net Director from NNEDV (USA); and Professor Brownly Carlson, from the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures and many more. The Tech Summit is for those interested in the intersection between technology and violence against women. Attendees include front-line domestic violence workers, police, lawyers and other legal professionals, policymakers, researchers, and technologists. Read more about here.
THE WESNET SAFETY NET PROJECT
The WESNET Safety Net Australia project was established in 2011 to examine the intersection of technology and Violence Against Women (VAW). WESNET works closely with the US Safety Net Project run by the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV). Through Safety Net Australia, we provide a wide range of training, technical advice, and policy guidance on the topics of technology safety, investigating and evidence collection, and victim privacy and security rights.
- Events and Training – Learn more about the types of training we offer and our National Technology Safety Summit.
- Technical advice – We welcome front-line support workers, investigators, legal professionals, academics, policymakers, and others to contact us for more information on technology-facilitated abuse. Contact us to request training or for more information about technology safety and violence against women.
- Resources – We have a wide range of resources and handouts on technology-facilitated abuse and are constantly developing new resources to address emerging issues, plus a Tech Safety Toolkit created for women experiencing tech abuse to learn how they can increase their technology safety and privacy with a gender-based violence lens. Check out our resources.
- Research – we regularly provide expert advice or content for research on the intersection between technology and violence against women. We also undertake important national research on this topic, including the National Survey on Technology Abuse and Domestic Violence in Australia.
MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
As the women’s specialist services peak body, WESNET (Women’s Services Network) provides national representation for over 350 specialist women's domestic and family violence services across Australia. For more than thirty years, we have provided strong and connected grassroots help for women experiencing domestic and family violence and for the services that support them.
We work collaboratively with our member network to provide direct relief to those impacted by gender-based violence and provide support to frontline workers through our project initiatives and training. And our policy and research work speaks to governments and the community and helps ensure evidence-based policy and practice. If you’re organisation providing services to women experiencing domestic and family violence or other forms of gender-based violence, or you’re an allied service, then consider becoming a member of the national peak body for specialist women’s DFV services. Learn more on how to become a member here.