Independent Collective of Survivors

The Independent Collective of Survivors (ICOS) is the national, not-for-profit survivors-led independent peak body that works with individuals and organisations in building capability to ethically and effectively partner with victim-survivors with lived and living experience and expertise of domestic, family, and sexual violence (DFSV), and other forms of gendered violence.

In 2021, a collective of more than 30 advocates from across Australia came together to address the systemic lack of victim survivor lived expertise being valued and recognised as a vital contribution to the evidence base. ICOS evolved from the successful collective campaign to have the voices and insights of lived experience embedded in policy decision-making through the establishment of a Victim Survivor Expert Advisory Council. Members of ICOS drafted the Survivor Statement that opens the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

ICOS brings together diverse voices and perspectives from victim-survivors who have experienced violence in different ways, including those from LGBTQIA+, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, multi-linguistic and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people with disabilities, and people who have experienced DFSV as children. We seek to amplify diverse voices and lived experience, and embed equality and accessibility in everything we do. It is the collective sum of all our diverse individual and collective identities, communities, experiences, and knowledge that enables us to tackle complex social issues together in partnership.

ICOS supports systemic change in organisations to integrate and embed lived experience voices and perspectives into decision-making, service delivery, research and evaluation. ICOS is committed to a trauma-sensitive collaborative approach in co-production and partnerships to meaningfully engage with lived experience to achieve impactful outcomes.