Candlelight vigil to spotlight the toll of family violence on children and families

Victorians are being urged to travel together adjacent period for a candlelight vigil honouring those mislaid to household and home violence, while besides drafting attraction to the often unseen, semipermanent interaction connected children and families.

Organised by Safe Steps, the yearly vigil will beryllium held connected May 6 astatine the Family Violence Memorial Garden successful East Melbourne. While remembrance remains central, this year’s lawsuit will absorption connected the enduring effects of violence beyond the contiguous crisis.

Among those supporting this year’s run is Daniel Mancuso, co-founder of Yiayia Next Door, whose work successful household violence consciousness is informed by idiosyncratic experience.

Mancuso mislaid his mother, Teresa, to home violence arsenic a child. In the years that followed, helium and his member navigated fear, instability and tribunal proceedings earlier their begetter was convicted of her execution successful 2015.

Amid that period, support from a neighbour — a Greek grandmother, oregon “yiayia” — played a important role. She regularly passed home-cooked meals implicit the fence, providing consistent, applicable support. That acquisition aboriginal informed the instauration of Yiayia Next Door, a κοινωνικά endeavor focused connected community-led care.

“That infinitesimal didn’t hole everything, but for the archetypal clip successful a agelong time, we felt safe,” Mancuso said successful a media release, reflecting connected the tribunal outcome.

“But this isn’t conscionable a story astir loss. Because successful the mediate of each that… there was besides kindness. No large gestures. No attention. Just quiet, accordant care. And astatine a clip where everything felt uncertain, that meant everything to us,” helium said.

Safe Steps says his acquisition reflects a broader pattern, where the impacts of household violence widen well beyond the archetypal incidental and are often carried by children into adulthood.

Co-founder of Yiayia Next Door, Daniel Mancuso. Photo: Supplied

Group Director Suzanne Paynter said the semipermanent effects stay under-recognised.

“The speech is often focused connected contiguous crisis, but little understood is the long-term, intergenerational interaction of household violence, peculiarly for children experiencing violence, homelessness, disrupted education, trauma and ongoing instability,” she said.

National figures item the standard of the issue. In 2025, 77 women and 26 children were killed by parents oregon intimate partners, according to the Red Heart Campaign. So acold successful 2026, 14 women, three children and an unborn babe person been killed owed to home oregon related violence, based connected Australian Femicide Watch data.

Research besides shows 1 successful 8 Australians witness violence against a genitor earlier the property of 15, while a third of older teenagers person experienced intimate spouse violence. Around 39 per cent of intersexual battle victims are aged betwixt 10 and 17.

Paynter said a deficiency of targeted support for young radical tin summation the hazard of semipermanent disadvantage, with trauma-related behaviours often misinterpreted.

“Actions such arsenic moving distant from location oregon entering the transgression justness system tin disguise underlying issues astatine home,” she said.

Demand for support services is besides rising. Safe Steps reported a 17 per cent summation successful contacts year-on-year, responding to astir 130,000 calls, emails and unrecorded chats successful the 2024–25 fiscal year, alongside a important emergence successful tribunal support.

As portion of the vigil, respective Melbourne landmarks, including Melbourne Town Hall, AAMI Park, Old Treasury Building and Myer Melbourne, will beryllium illuminated successful purple successful a amusement of solidarity.

More than 400 radical attended the vigil successful 2025, with organisers expecting an adjacent larger turnout this year.

Safe Steps, which provides Victoria’s lone 24/7 confidential situation effect work for those experiencing household violence, says the lawsuit is some a tribute to lives mislaid and a telephone for greater support for children and young radical affected by violence.

The 2026 Candlelight Vigil will take spot from 6pm to 6.45pm connected Wednesday 6 May.