Amplifying Voices: Lived Experience Advocacy Leading DFSV Prevention and Responses in the Northern Territory
Tracks
Ballroom 3: In-Person Only
| Monday, November 23, 2026 |
| 4:10 PM - 5:10 PM |
| Ballroom 3 |
Overview
Carlee Heise, YWCA Australia
Three Key Learnings
1. Recognising Lived Experience as Expertise
2. Slowing down and prioritising relationships
3. Centring lived experience creates more effective DFSV responses and more empowered survivors
Speaker
Carlee Heise
Team Leader, Lived Experience And Advocacy Program
Ywca Australia
Amplifying Voices: Lived Experience Advocacy Leading DFSV Prevention and Responses in the Northern Territory
Presentation Overview
Explore YWCA Australia’s Amplifying Voices Leadership and Advocacy program, a lived-experience-led initiative bringing together women from the Greater Darwin region of the Northern Territory (NT) who have experienced domestic, family, and sexual violence (DFSV) and homelessness. The NT has consistently recorded the highest rates of DFSV in Australia, with women—particularly Aboriginal women—disproportionately affected. In this context, survivor-led approaches that centre lived experience are urgently needed.
Grounded in the principle that those most affected must be central to solutions, the program supports survivors to lead, influence, and advocate for change across the sectors that impact their lives.
The Amplifying Voices Advocates will make up the panel, moderated by the YWCA Program Facilitator. They will share their experiences co-designing and participating in the leadership and advocacy program built on trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and strengths-based approaches. They will reflect on how the co-design process fostered ownership, built confidence, and supported their transition from participants to graduates and now members of the Amplifying Voices Advocacy Group.
The panel will present key findings from the Amplifying Voices Program Review, offering insights into what worked, lessons learned, and the measurable impact of embedding lived experience leadership. Panelists will highlight their ongoing advocacy work, including contributing to service improvement, informing policy and practice, and engaging in sector consultations across the DFSV and homelessness systems in the NT.
Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the transformative power of lived experience, alongside practical strategies for embedding survivor voices into program design, delivery, and evaluation. The session will demonstrate how meaningful inclusion not only strengthens services but also increases agency, dignity, and empowerment for victim-survivors.
Attendees will leave inspired and equipped with tangible approaches to authentically engage lived experience voices in their own work, recognising this as essential to building more responsive, effective, and equitable DFSV responses.
Grounded in the principle that those most affected must be central to solutions, the program supports survivors to lead, influence, and advocate for change across the sectors that impact their lives.
The Amplifying Voices Advocates will make up the panel, moderated by the YWCA Program Facilitator. They will share their experiences co-designing and participating in the leadership and advocacy program built on trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and strengths-based approaches. They will reflect on how the co-design process fostered ownership, built confidence, and supported their transition from participants to graduates and now members of the Amplifying Voices Advocacy Group.
The panel will present key findings from the Amplifying Voices Program Review, offering insights into what worked, lessons learned, and the measurable impact of embedding lived experience leadership. Panelists will highlight their ongoing advocacy work, including contributing to service improvement, informing policy and practice, and engaging in sector consultations across the DFSV and homelessness systems in the NT.
Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the transformative power of lived experience, alongside practical strategies for embedding survivor voices into program design, delivery, and evaluation. The session will demonstrate how meaningful inclusion not only strengthens services but also increases agency, dignity, and empowerment for victim-survivors.
Attendees will leave inspired and equipped with tangible approaches to authentically engage lived experience voices in their own work, recognising this as essential to building more responsive, effective, and equitable DFSV responses.
Biography
The YWCA Amplifying Voices Advocacy Group is a collective of women living on Larrakia Country in Darwin, Northern Territory all with lived experience of domestic, family, and sexual violence, and homelessness. The group co-designed and completed YWCA Australia’s Amplifying Voices Leadership and Advocacy Program, graduating together and forming an advocacy group. Amplifying Voices is dedicated to empowering women and gender-diverse people to shape the systems and services that impact their lives. Through collaboration, storytelling, and education, the group leads advocacy and influences system reforms across primary prevention efforts and the DFSV and homelessness sectors more broadly.
