A 3 hour workshop for practitioners in family and domestic violence services

This workshop explores advocacy as a core function of specialist family and domestic violence practice, both for individual victim survivors and for the systems around them.

Participants will examine the specialist family and domestic violence service’s distinct position within the broader response system, as the one program partner whose sole objective is the safety and wellbeing of the victim survivor. The workshop covers how practitioners travel alongside victim survivors to observe the strengths and weaknesses of the response they receive, including unintended effects that can arise when multiple services and agencies are involved.

A key focus is what individual advocacy looks like in day-to-day practice, and when and how to use advocacy approaches when collaborative responses are not improving safety and wellbeing outcomes, or when other services and systems are not fulfilling their responsibilities. The workshop then moves to systemic advocacy, exploring how the experiences of individual victim survivors reveal broader systemic barriers to safety, health and wellbeing, and how practitioners and services can identify, raise and act on these barriers, including influencing public policy and resource allocation within the wider system.

By the end of the workshop, participants will understand the difference between individual and systemic advocacy, be able to recognise when advocacy is needed, and know how to raise systemic issues in ways that contribute to long-term improvements in the family and domestic violence response system.

Duration: 3 hours

Audience: Practitioners working in specialist family and domestic violence services