Canberra mother Tara Costigan was murdered by her ex-partner but an "angel" acting in her name is hoping to save other domestic violence survivors from the same fate.
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Tara's Angels, a post-crisis domestic violence support service run by the Tara Costigan Foundation, will start helping its first clients on Tuesday.
Nadia Pessarossi, chief operating officer of the foundation, said the service is one-of-a-kind in Australia.
"It's about breaking the cycle," Ms Pessarossi said. "It's for women who have already left a relationship and they're suffering from PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder], they're having issues with their kids.
"It's about helping them coordinate all of the services out there but it's a holistic approach so it's also about self-esteem; going to get their hair done, if they want to have a day at the beautician. It's about making them feel good again and being able to be really good, fit healthy mums as well."
It's been 20 months since the young mother was struck with an axe as she nursed her week-old daughter.
Days after the first anniversary of her death, Costigan's former partner Marcus Rappel pleaded guilty to her murder.
Ms Pessarossi said a string of domestic violence-related murders around that time forced the Canberra community to reconsider its response to family violence.
"Tara's [death] especially struck a chord because she was a young mum, we could all relate to it," Ms Pessarossi said.
Twelve months ago, ACT Policing's family violence coordination unit was formed to provide oversight of family violence cases.
Detective Senior Constable Jason Taylor said the unit reviewed each of the 3400 cases of family violence reported to ACT Policing in the past year and delivered training to more than 650 frontline police officers in 2016.
Senior Constable Taylor said there were eight to 12 family violence incidents across Canberra per day.
"Family violence isn't this behind closed doors, acceptable thing. It involves abhorrent behaviour that if you witnessed it occurring outside in front of you, you'd call the police," Senior Constable Taylor said.
"If you think that it's occurring, call somebody about it. We are here to help. That is what police do. It's what we all signed up for, it's what we're sworn to do and we want people ... if they're suffering from this, if it's happening to call us."
Since May, police have recorded 136 family violence evidence-in-chief statements.
The statements can be played in court, eliminating the need for a victim to relive their trauma, although they can still be cross-examined.
The first recording was played before a court on Friday. Despite the victim recanting her statement during the hearing, the magistrate found the recorded statement so compelling she found the defendant guilty.
The statements have been recorded for 116 cases before the courts and 57 cases where an early guilty plea has been entered.
Ms Costigan had been granted an interim domestic violence order against Rappel the day before she was murdered after she had grown concerned by his increasingly abusive behaviour.
Last year it was reported breaches of family violence orders had increased threefold in five years, but new research from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showed the breach rate was much lower.
In the ACT, about three per cent of the domestic violence and protection orders handed down between 2014 and 2016 had been breached. The rate of breaches in orders taken out this year jumped to 6 per cent.
This means the first Tara's Angel will have her work cut out for her
Ms Pessarossi said the first angel is a domestic violence survivor herself and "has experienced the gaps and the lack of long-term support for DV victims firsthand".
Since they opened their website for registrations, the demand has surpassed the 22 spots available with the first angel.
"You could say we've been bombarded, it's a big realisation of how bad domestic violence is in our community," she said.
Register for an angel at: www.taracostiganfoundation.com
