This presentation will demonstrate the value of collaborative work and developing strength partnerships to meet the needs of victim-survivors in a psychologically safe and trauma informed manner.

Full Stop Australia established the National Survivor Advocate Program in late 2021 and is committed to working with organisations to develop safe engagement opportunities with victim-survivors of sexual, domestic and family violence (SDFV). This presentation will explore the work done between Full Stop Australia and The Survivor Hub to establish an effective partnership which supports people with lived experience of SDFV to connect with peers.

The Survivor Hub is a peer support network for anyone who has experienced sexual, domestic or family violence. It was established following an isolating experience navigating the justice system following a domestic violence relationship. It became evident that connection with others who had similar lived experience was essential to healing and recovery.

The Survivor Hub approached Full Stop Australia to assist in realising their goals of developing in person meet ups to foster connection and support for victim-survivors in a safe and trauma informed format. We will talk about the initial journey to establish these meet-ups, our ongoing collaborative work and continuing challenges.

Key Learnings:

1. Demonstrate the positive impact of peer support for victim-survivors healing and recovery.

2. Illustrate the importance of centring psychological safety and being trauma informed in working with victim-survivors.

3. Showcase how collaborative work can assist to meet the needs of victim-survivors of domestic violence.

This presentation will demonstrate the value of collaborative work and developing strength partnerships to meet the needs of victim-survivors in a psychologically safe and trauma informed manner.

Full Stop Australia established the National Survivor Advocate Program in late 2021 and is committed to working with organisations to develop safe engagement opportunities with victim-survivors of sexual, domestic and family violence (SDFV). This presentation will explore the work done between Full Stop Australia and The Survivor Hub to establish an effective partnership which supports people with lived experience of SDFV to connect with peers.

The Survivor Hub is a peer support network for anyone who has experienced sexual, domestic or family violence. It was established following an isolating experience navigating the justice system following a domestic violence relationship. It became evident that connection with others who had similar lived experience was essential to healing and recovery.

The Survivor Hub approached Full Stop Australia to assist in realising their goals of developing in person meet ups to foster connection and support for victim-survivors in a safe and trauma informed format. We will talk about the initial journey to establish these meet-ups, our ongoing collaborative work and continuing challenges.

Key Learnings:

1. Demonstrate the positive impact of peer support for victim-survivors healing and recovery.

2. Illustrate the importance of centring psychological safety and being trauma informed in working with victim-survivors.

3. Showcase how collaborative work can assist to meet the needs of victim-survivors of domestic violence.

ANROWS is a national research organisation whose vision is to build the evidence base that supports ending violence against women and children in Australia. Every five years, ANROWS develops the Australian National Research Agenda (‘Agenda’) to end domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV). The Agenda aims to identify the most pressing research priorities in DFSV and to promote the coordination of research efforts around these priorities.

This presentation will briefly cover the co-design process undertaken to develop the Agenda; explain the research priorities identified; and unpack the ways in which the Agenda contends that DFSV research should be undertaken. For the first time, the Agenda highlights that it is not just the research we do, but how we do it that matters.

To develop the Agenda, ANROWS established a research team with an external survivor-advocate as co-investigator; and undertook a process of review and co-design with victim-survivors, researchers and practitioners. This process resulted in the Agenda not only identifying nine priority areas where further research is urgently needed, but in highlighting priorities in our ways of working and knowing that are critical to address power imbalances and evidence gaps in DFSV research. The Agenda promotes the importance of:

- community-led research and working with practitioners to develop research together: connecting expertise from within the DFSV sector as well as across sectors to produce more practical, current and relevant research.
- working with victim-survivors, and children, to understand their needs and develop fit for purpose solutions
- valuing research that is undertaken in ways that sit outside mainstream research traditions: traditional western research methodologies tend to reinforce power imbalances, especially between the ‘researchers’ and the ‘participants’. Embracing non-western approaches to research can mitigate replicating systems of control and ‘power over’ and supports moving towards practices that are more emancipatory and equitable.

Key Learnings:

1. Given limited resources, research agendas can help guide research efforts and ensure we are addressing research questions that matter.

2. To contribute to radical change in DFSV, and disrupt the hierarchies of knowledge that can exist in DFSV research, we need to consider how we can build the DFSV evidence base in a way that brings diversity of knowledge, expertise and perspectives together and embeds the insights of victim-survivors, practitioners and community members in the research.

3. Indigenous methods and ways of knowing can enrich the collection of data, encourage connection and mitigate power imbalances.