Curriculum- Aligned Domestic and Family Violence Prevention: Educating and Empowering Young People Across Tiwi Islands
Tracks
Room 1: In-Person and Online
| Wednesday, November 26, 2025 |
| 11:45 AM - 12:15 PM |
Overview
Sarah Austin, Darwin Youth Services
Details
How to Design Place-Based DFV Education That Meets Curriculum Standards and Resonates With Young People
Learn how to create DFV prevention programs that are curriculum-aligned and grounded in local cultural and social contexts to ensure authentic engagement.
Youth-Centred Tools and Approaches for Early Intervention Education
Gain practical tools like translated resources, interactive activities, and strength-based methods to help young people understand respectful relationships and coercive control.
How Sustained, Co-Designed Partnerships Lead to Culturally Safe, High-Impact Education in Remote Communities
Explore how long-term collaboration with schools and partners like Tiwi College and Clontarf supports culturally responsive, community-driven education.
Speaker
Mrs Sarah Austin
Director
Darwin Youth Services
Curriculum- Aligned Domestic and Family Violence Prevention: Educating and Empowering Young People Across Tiwi Islands
Presentation Overview
This presentation will highlight two innovative, evidence-based education programs designed to prevent domestic and family violence among young people: I Respect for young men and Girl Speak for young women. Developed after years of frontline experience in child protection in Alice Springs, these programs are curriculum-aligned and grounded in early intervention principles, aiming to build respectful relationships and challenge harmful norms from a young age.
Delivered across urban, regional, and remote NT communities, the programs are both culturally responsive and adaptable. Over the past six months, we have been delivering in Maningrida, working closely with Elders and staff at the school’s Language Centre. Together, we’ve contextualised program content and developed resources in language—including our “Myths and Facts” card game—to ensure accessibility and cultural integrity.
We have also built a strong, two-and-a-half-year partnership with Tiwi College, a remote school with 99% Indigenous enrolment. Working alongside the Tiwi College Founding Fathers, we have adapted both programs to reflect cultural values and community priorities, ensuring ongoing relevance and trust.
In Palmerston, we have been delivering in both the Middle and Senior Colleges for the past two years. Our close partnership with Clontarf Academies has supported the contextualisation of I Respect, ensuring content is culturally safe, strengths-based, and engaging for Aboriginal young men.
A short video will accompany this presentation, showcasing student engagement, community partnerships, and culturally adapted resources. Now delivered by a team of seven facilitators across the Northern Territory, I Respect and Girl Speak offer a proven model for embedding domestic and family violence prevention into education systems through culturally responsive, community-led practice.
Delivered across urban, regional, and remote NT communities, the programs are both culturally responsive and adaptable. Over the past six months, we have been delivering in Maningrida, working closely with Elders and staff at the school’s Language Centre. Together, we’ve contextualised program content and developed resources in language—including our “Myths and Facts” card game—to ensure accessibility and cultural integrity.
We have also built a strong, two-and-a-half-year partnership with Tiwi College, a remote school with 99% Indigenous enrolment. Working alongside the Tiwi College Founding Fathers, we have adapted both programs to reflect cultural values and community priorities, ensuring ongoing relevance and trust.
In Palmerston, we have been delivering in both the Middle and Senior Colleges for the past two years. Our close partnership with Clontarf Academies has supported the contextualisation of I Respect, ensuring content is culturally safe, strengths-based, and engaging for Aboriginal young men.
A short video will accompany this presentation, showcasing student engagement, community partnerships, and culturally adapted resources. Now delivered by a team of seven facilitators across the Northern Territory, I Respect and Girl Speak offer a proven model for embedding domestic and family violence prevention into education systems through culturally responsive, community-led practice.
Biography
Sarah Austin is the Founder and Director of Darwin Youth Services, leading innovative, evidence-based domestic and family violence prevention education for young people across remote and regional Australia. With a career spanning over a decade in youth work and child protection, Sarah is known for her practical, strengths-based approach and commitment to ensuring prevention programs are culturally relevant, engaging, and accessible.
Now leading a team of three facilitators, Sarah delivers impactful, culturally responsive education focused on respectful relationships, coercive control, and online safety—empowering young people and communities to build safer futures.
Sarah has developed and delivered NT curriculum-aligned programs like I Respect and Girl Speak, currently running in Palmerston Middle and Senior College, Tiwi College, Maningrida College, and Alice Springs schools. She is passionate about working alongside community Elders, local services, and young people to adapt resources and programs to meet each community’s needs, ensuring conversations about respect, consent, and safety are meaningful and sustainable.
Sarah was awarded Outstanding Contribution to Youth Work and Excellence in Harm Minimisation at the AADANT Awards and has presented at national conferences, including the National Indigenous Domestic and Family Violence Conference in 2024.
