Eleven community organisations will receive a share of $3.35 million to deliver programs that help victim-survivors of sexual violence to recover and heal.
The grants, which are jointly funded by federal and state governments, recognise grassroots community services as playing a critical role in supporting people who may otherwise have had trouble accessing help.
Bankstown Women's Health Centre, a non-profit organisation that provides multiple health and wellbeing services to women across the Bankstown-Canterbury area in Sydney's southwest, will be one of the grant recipients.
Many women accessing the centre are culturally and linguistically diverse, meaning that services need to be culturally safe, operations manager Fatima Elcheikh told AAP.
"The biggest challenge to women accessing support is not just community attitudes but language barriers, visa insecurity and not knowing what is actually available," she said.
"Women do want support, but the system doesn't always feel safe or validating, and if you don't understand what the service is and how it can help, you won't access it."
The grant funding will help the centre run its Healing Kitchen program in collaboration with Liverpool Women's Health.
"Cultural women don't always identify with Western cultural support because it often doesn't feel culturally familiar to them," Ms Elcheikh said.
"This program supports multicultural women using cooking and shared meals, helping them to reconnect with themselves and start healing without necessarily that traditional talk therapy approach."
Funding will be allocated to services across NSW that support priority groups including Aboriginal, multicultural and LGBTQI communities, people with disability, adult survivors of child sexual abuse and people in contact with the criminal justice system.
The funding boost comes as the annual Safe Steps candlelight vigil has remembered the women and children lost to family and domestic violence, and the long-term impacts on victim-survivors.
Safe Steps is Victoria's only 24/7 family violence response service and it provides immediate, confidential support to anyone in the state who needs it.
Hundreds of people attended a vigil at parliament in Melbourne on Wednesday night to remember those who have been lost and hear the stories of victim-survivors.
Fourteen women, three children and an unborn baby have been killed in Australia so far in 2026 due to domestic or associated violence.
Demand for support services continues to grow, with Safe Steps recording a 17 per cent increase in calls over the past year.
In March, the service responded to its highest number of live chats.
The increase in people reaching out was directly related to spikes in fuel prices, with domestic violence often increasing at times of financial pressure, Safe Steps group director Suzanne Paynter said.
"It highlights both an encouraging sign that people are reaching out for help, but also reflects the confronting reality that incidents of violence remain too high in this country," she said.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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