Microsoft Australia to create tech solutions to prevent family domestic violence

The Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce New South Wales (AICC) in partnership with Microsoft and Mission Australia are creating innovative technology solutions to prevent domestic and family violence (DFV) in Australia.

According to this coalition of businesses 61 commitments were recently made to move the Social Innovation Accelerator, a program bringing cross-sector entrepreneurial solutions to fruition, to the next stage.

A long-time supporter of the initiative, the minister for customer service and digital government Victor Dominello recognised the need to move beyond the current silo-based model. Instead advocating for human-centred delivery that “evolves and revolves around the individual and their needs.”

The inspiration behind the Social Innovation Accelerator came from the Israeli-based Michal Sela Forum (MSF), whose aim is to save lives and prevent domestic violence through innovation and technological solutions.

Michelle Blum, CEO at AICC said, “We want to create an eco-system that will amplify what already exists here to help prevent domestic violence.”

Lili Ben-Ami, CEO of MSF explained that by bringing together a cross section of broad collaborators including engineers and entrepreneurs from Israel’s high performing tech sector, with intelligence and counterterrorism experts plus social welfare agencies and domestic violence survivors the forum has used “out-of-the-box thinking” to build solutions that identify digital warning signs for violence in relationships.

Through multiple hackathons their accelerator has already created a number of start-ups using digital data to prevent domestic violence. The MSF is planning to support the creation of 100 start-ups working to end domestic violence.

Brett Lightfoot, industry director, public sector at Microsoft Australia said, “Domestic family violence is a wicked problem facing our society.”

He noted the tremendous, ongoing cost of DFV, with 32,000 assaults annually in New South Wales, translating to 87 a day, or 3.6 every hour. These numbers place an enormous strain on the systems in place, including 50 percent of all policing time.

 Adding that the lack of current synergies has translated to missed opportunities to save lives. Instead, he advocated for a “proactive, rather than a reactive process”.

There were over 219 challenges identified at the recent workshop, the third in the series that commenced in 2021, about the best ways to reduce DFV. 

Priority projects will kick off as innovation pods in early May.