Defining Community Safety
“Safety is care, it’s community, it’s dignity and it’s meeting each other with support.” (Apryl Day, Dhadjowa Foundation)
The term ‘community safety’ is often thrown around as a political football, wielded to hardline ‘tough-on-crime’ agendas and to scapegoat young people and marginalised communities for what is a failure of government policy. While politicians sink taxpayer money into prisons and policing, the people are calling for real community safety and grassroots organisers are taking action.
On May 28, 2026, at the Alternative First Responders Action Webinar: Turning ideas into action, we heard from peer-led groups creating networks of support for people experiencing homelessness, advocates fighting to decriminalise laws that put people at risk, and grassroots organisations already responding to crises with care and compassion, instead of punishment. Despite limited resources and being stretched to their limits, these programs are saving and improving lives right now.
Community Responses in Victoria
Dhadjowa Foundation
The Dhadjowa Foundation is a grassroots organisation that provides culturally safe support and care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and families across Australia, whose loved ones have died in custody. In the pursuit of systemic change and accountability, Dhadjowa advocates justice on a local and national level.
Dhadjowa was founded in 2020 by Apryl Day. Apryl Day is a Yorta Yorta, Wemba Wemba, and Barapa Barapa woman. As a justice reform leader, she was instrumental in the historic decriminalisation of public drunkenness in Victoria – a landmark legislative reform long called for by Aboriginal communities.
“We cannot police our way to safety. We know that care must replace criminalisation. The public intoxication reform shows us that alternative first responses work. Alternatives to police already exist, they are working and our communities already have them in place.”
Harm Reduction Victoria
Harm Reduction Victoria (HRVic) is a peer and member-based organisation with deep roots in the diverse communities it serves. They adopt a non-judgmental approach that treats every person with dignity, compassion, and respect. HRVic use evidence-based practices of harm-reduction to ensure that people who use drugs have access to safety and support. Their programs include;
- Health promotion team – harm reduction, health response, and education
- Fuse Network – harm reduction peer worker network
- Dancewize – crowd care and crisis response in festival spaces
- PAMS – therapy support service
Footscray Mall Friends
Footscray Mall Friends is a grassroots community-led response to increased private security officers in Footscray CBD. They advocate for a community-focused approach to safety that prioritises prevention, support, and care, and oppose carceral responses to social issues and inequalities.
“We saw an unmet need, someone to call who can do the de-escalation work which we know is necessary in keeping our communities safe. We sit with people, we learn their names, we share a coffee, a cigarette or bring a guitar for a sing along. We invite people to picnics. As we have built trust, we have also provided specific supports for people who request it.”
Southside Justice
Southside Justice Community Legal Centre run a statewide sex worker legal program in partnership with Vixen, Victoria’s peer sex worker organisation, they also campaign alongside local services and grass roots groups like Care not Cruelty and do outreach at several community health and other spaces where folks living on the street come seeking material aid, support and safety.
“People who actually save lives are doing unpaid peer support work in a society where we continue to waste billions and billions on police and prisons which are proven to be harmful. We have every right to demand better.”
Beyond Survival Project
Beyond Survival recently released the Harm in the Name of Safety report, which distils practice-based evidence from family violence practitioners and frontline workers in Victoria about harms enacted during police responses to family violence, and calls for the establishment of a community-based first responder pilot.
“What the stories showed us was patterned and repeated harm occurring in the name of safety via police responses. We are calling for a re-distribution of resources to frontline and family violence services; to build and strengthen community pathways, we are calling for funding for an alternative first responder pilot for Victoria.”
What does community safety mean to you?
Investing in an ecosystem of care that centres grassroots groups and community-based responses will ensure all people have access to genuine care and safety.
What does community safety mean for you? For people who want to explore this question head to our take action page where you can access several resources, also linked below. If you are ready to action today, write to your local MP about why alternative first responders’ matter to you and your community.
Links to resources:
- Action templates for writing to your local member of parliament
- Kitchen Table Conversation Toolkit
- Alternative First Responders Position Paper
- Alternative First Responders Pledge
- 3CR Radio Interview with Alternative First Responders Advocate
