Keynote Session 1
| Monday, November 27, 2023 |
| 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM |
Overview
12:30pm – 12:40pm
Welcome To Country
12:40pm – 12:50pm
Conference Welcome, Housekeeping & Lived Experience Acknowledgment
Katherine Berney, Director, National Womens Safety Alliance
Geraldine Bilston, Deputy Chair, Victim Survivor Advisory Council, Family Safety Victoria
12:50pm – 2:00pm
Keynote Panel: Challenging Systems to Change – Empowering People and Communities to Minimise Harmful Systemic Intervention
Moderator: Michelle Rogers, Aboriginal Community Housing Industry Association (ACHIA) NSW
Hala Abdelnour, Institute of Non Violence
Nooria Ahmadi, NAPCAN Member
Hayley Foster, Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia
Speaker
Hala Abdelnour
CEO and Founder
Institute of Non-Violence
Keynote Session 1
Biography
Since 2003, Hala has consulted with and delivered training on equity and inclusion, as well as family violence to various police and correctional departments, government agencies, corporate leaders and across the not-for-profit sector.
She has delivered numerous Men’s Behaviour Change programs across Victoria and provided specialist consultation to No to Violence between 2016 to 2018, including redesigning and delivering the Grad Cert in Family Violence at Swinburne University.
In 2020, Hala founded the Institute of non-violence, a service that was established to support family violence response across Australia. Her niche specialisation is working with individuals who use tactics of abuse, as well as working to eradicate systemic racism and misogyny.
Hala has spoken at various local, national, and international conferences and has featured on ABC and SBS news radio and TV.
A lover of languages, people and creativity, Hala has lived, worked and travelled in more than 50 countries and can communicate in 6 languages.
Nooria Ahmadi
Student Leader, Anzac Prize Recipient & Youth Advocate
Keynote Panelists
Abstract
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Biography
I am Nooria Ahmadi, a student leader, Anzac Prize recipient, and youth advocate. I am extremely enthusiastic about forming social change. As a recipient of a scholarship to attend the FECCA conference in 2021, I am now able to recognise the significance of conferences and have thus opted to join the organising committee for the Stop Domestic Violence conference. I am currently a writer who has completed the first draft of a 40,000-word book. I am also a participant in Lions Youth of the Year, where I won first place in a club final and received a participation certificate in regional competitions. I aspire to pursue a career as a politician in the future, but I am also passionate about studying law at the University of Queensland in 2024.
Hayley Foster
Director, Family Violence, Director, Access, Equity and Inclusion
Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia
Keynote Session 1
Biography
Hayley Foster BBus (Ec) LLB (Hons) GDLP GDFDRP GAICD is a recognised leader in the field of family, domestic, and sexual violence, with over 20 years of experience in creating impactful change in business, community, and government settings. Throughout this time, Hayley has worked in frontline services, behaviour change, family law, disputes resolution, training, policy, law reform, financial services, and executive leadership.
Over the last decade, Hayley has played a pivotal role in shaping significant state and federal reforms, such as criminalising coercive control, affirmative sexual consent laws, a national curriculum on respectful relationships, domestic violence leave, Respect@Work, and enhancing safety in family law.
Most recently, Hayley has been appointed to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia as Director of Family Violence and Director of Access, Equity and Inclusion advising the Chief Justice and Chief Executive Officer on improving the Courts' response to family violence and increasing accessibility for diverse populations.
Ms Michelle Rogers
Manager Policy & Partnership
ACHIA
Keynote Session 1
Abstract
Have you ever considered how systems align and impact the way we work with families and communities around family and domestic violence? Systems have learned to shape our responses to both perpetrators and victim/survivors of violence, impacting the dignity of choice for healing pathways toward safety and change for those we work for. As committed sector workers we fight to ‘fit’ those we work for into the ‘system’ that we hope will service them – instead of challenging the systems to adapt to be responsive to person and community needs.
Bringing together perspectives and experience from varying intersects, this expert panel comes together to talk about the challenge facing every one of us working in the sector, asking:
• What happens when the impact of system gets in the way of our work?
• What happens when we challenge a system to change?
The panel will consider the following key discussion points:
• Dignity of choice for survivor victims of violence
• The systemic response to violence and impact on our practice
• Recognising Indigenous ways of knowing being and doing in healing from violence
Join the opening keynote panel discussion at STOP DV 2023 !
Bringing together perspectives and experience from varying intersects, this expert panel comes together to talk about the challenge facing every one of us working in the sector, asking:
• What happens when the impact of system gets in the way of our work?
• What happens when we challenge a system to change?
The panel will consider the following key discussion points:
• Dignity of choice for survivor victims of violence
• The systemic response to violence and impact on our practice
• Recognising Indigenous ways of knowing being and doing in healing from violence
Join the opening keynote panel discussion at STOP DV 2023 !
Biography
Wiradjuri and Gomeroi woman, Dabee descent, visiting on Bundjalung Country over half of my life, with a long-standing professional background in Housing Services, Child Protection, Out of Home Care, Cultural planning for children and Specialist in Practice & Permanency. Using culturally embedded practice will support children to live at home safely with family. I enjoy purposeful relationships across sectors, to enable sound advocacy and sector priority shift. My experience is both lived and academic, enabling a unique and balanced lens on issues affecting our Aboriginal communities. As an advocate for systemic change, I strive to ensure that self-determination and empowerment are more than words, I challenge Government processes to shift to understand cultural ways of knowing, being and doing. Working with ACHIA NSW, in the not for profit, Aboriginal Community Controlled sector as Partnerships and Policy Manager, focused on adequate, affordable, secure and sustainable housing for Aboriginal families.
