Thrive Through Economic Independence: Employment Pathways to Long-Term Recovery for Victim-Survivors
Tracks
Ballroom 2: In-Person Only
| Wednesday, November 25, 2026 |
| 9:20 AM - 9:40 AM |
Overview
Elleni Tsaketas, FW (Future Women)
Three Key Learnings
1. Employment and economic security is an essential pillar in achieving long-term freedom from violence.
2. A model for specialised pre-employment services to help victim-survivors return to work, secure their financial futures and thrive.
3. The importance of a holistic approach to recovery and how to collaborate to ensure services can achieve this.
Speaker
Miss Elleni Tsaketas
Advisor
FW (Future Women)
Thrive through economic independence: Employment pathways to long-term recovery for victim-survivors
Presentation Overview
Employment and training are a critical missing piece of the healing, recovery, and the prevention puzzle.
In a recent report revealing the impact of domestic violence on women’s employment outcomes, Dr Anne Summers AO, stressed, "employment and education are not just tools for empowerment – they’re lifelines.”
However, the importance of employment in achieving long-term freedom from violence has received limited national attention.
Australia’s mainstream employment services are ill-equipped for the non-linear, trauma-shaped reality of rebuilding a working life alongside rebuilding a life. FW’s Jobs Academy is working to address this system failure.
This presentation draws on the work of FW’s Jobs Academy, a virtual pre-employment program that has supported over 4,000 women and gender-diverse people into workforce participation, to examine what a recovery-ready employment model actually looks like in practice.
Situated in Stream 8, the presentation will cover three areas.
First, the structural gap: why standard employment pathways fail victim-survivors, and what the evidence tells us about the specific barriers women face at the intersection of family violence and economic exclusion; including coerced debt, employment sabotage, disrupted work history and the ongoing cognitive load of trauma.
Second, the practical model: how Jobs Academy combines digital access, peer connection, mentoring and skills development to meet women where they are, rather than where a program needs them to be.
Third, how DFV services, employment programs, housing providers and financial counsellors can work together to create genuinely holistic recovery support and what that coordination looks like when it centres the whole person rather than a single presenting need.
Participants will leave with a clearer picture of what cross-sector collaboration between employment programs and DFV services can look like and practical insights into designing economic recovery supports that are genuinely recovery-ready.
In a recent report revealing the impact of domestic violence on women’s employment outcomes, Dr Anne Summers AO, stressed, "employment and education are not just tools for empowerment – they’re lifelines.”
However, the importance of employment in achieving long-term freedom from violence has received limited national attention.
Australia’s mainstream employment services are ill-equipped for the non-linear, trauma-shaped reality of rebuilding a working life alongside rebuilding a life. FW’s Jobs Academy is working to address this system failure.
This presentation draws on the work of FW’s Jobs Academy, a virtual pre-employment program that has supported over 4,000 women and gender-diverse people into workforce participation, to examine what a recovery-ready employment model actually looks like in practice.
Situated in Stream 8, the presentation will cover three areas.
First, the structural gap: why standard employment pathways fail victim-survivors, and what the evidence tells us about the specific barriers women face at the intersection of family violence and economic exclusion; including coerced debt, employment sabotage, disrupted work history and the ongoing cognitive load of trauma.
Second, the practical model: how Jobs Academy combines digital access, peer connection, mentoring and skills development to meet women where they are, rather than where a program needs them to be.
Third, how DFV services, employment programs, housing providers and financial counsellors can work together to create genuinely holistic recovery support and what that coordination looks like when it centres the whole person rather than a single presenting need.
Participants will leave with a clearer picture of what cross-sector collaboration between employment programs and DFV services can look like and practical insights into designing economic recovery supports that are genuinely recovery-ready.
Biography
Jamila is an author, podcaster, and diversity, equity, and inclusion expert. As Deputy Managing Director, she co-founded the FW Jobs Academy to support women in building their careers. She is a best-selling author of Not Just Lucky and Broken Brains, a regular columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and has been named one of the AFR's 100 Women of Influence.
