Donate to the Living Free Project

Help us keep vulnerable girls and young women out of the justice system

TaskForce’s Living Free Project has empowered over 300 girls and women to re-engage with education and live happy, fulfilled and productive lives and has helped reunify families. Results that will echo down generations, opening opportunities for their children and their children’s children through improved parenting and other skills.

With your help, the Living Free Program can change even more lives for the better.

This program is supported by donations and grants from charitable organisations and individuals.

Donations above $2 are tax deductible. If you donate before 30 June, your donation will be deductible in your tax return for the 2022/23 financial year.

The Living Free story

“ With effective intervention girls and young women go on to live full and fulfilled lives.”

– LISA ABBOTT, EXECUTIVE MANAGER SOCIAL IMPACT AND GROWTH

“Before we started Living Free, girls and women were falling through mainstream systems like education and health and into contact with police.”

Female identifying people in the justice system often present with unique needs and distinct pathways to offending such as trauma, mental health, alcohol and other drug use and often have a history of relationships marked with violence and abuse.

“A targeted, gendered and coordinated response was required to support these girls and women”, Lisa says.

The Living Free Project is a place-based intervention operating in Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula with the aim of preventing female identifying people from entering the justice system by intervening early. Combining wraparound, direct intervention with system capacity building and advocacy, Living Free is able to significantly improve the lives of women and girls in the region.

Lisa stresses the importance of intervening early, “With effective intervention girls and young women go on to live full and fulfilled lives.”

Lyanne, a former Living Free client and now TaskForce’s Lived Experience Advocate, was once one of these women. “In 2019 I lost custody of my daughter which sent me into a magnificent rock bottom and spiral with alcohol and drug problems. I ended up having a few court cases and my Legal Aid lawyer referred me onto Living Free while I was in the midst of the chaos.”

Living Free makes a difference by identifying and supporting young women to connect with sustainable support at the earliest possible time. The flexibility of the program allows for workers to meet the client where they’re at and provide assertive outreach as needed.

This help meant that Lyanne could begin her recovery journey. She was eventually able to also secure employment, which “helped me get my life back on track.” Most importantly, “I eventually did get my daughter back – she lives with me full time now and she just turned five.”

Since its launch five years ago, Living Free, funded by the Australian Government and a variety of philanthropic foundations, has grown to support more girls and women in need, and to strengthen its impact in changing the sector for the better.

Now as a TaskForce employee, Lyanne has thrown all her strength into advocating for change for women, girls and other people just like her.

“This project is an example of what we can achieve when we work together to support our most vulnerable girls and women and put their needs at the centre of it all.”