The first step to meaningfully addressing Australia’s DV epidemic and truly supporting victim survivors is to engage with those who have lived experience.
That’s why Full Stop Australia has just announced an advisory group to their National Survivor Advocate Program which includes twelve individuals who have shared deep insights about the support they wish they’d had.
CEO of Full Stop Australia Hayley Foster describes the group as a powerhouse collective “representing almost every state and territory– and from a diverse range of ages, gender, sexual orientation, background and culture.”
In addition to the ambassadors, Foster says there are over 250 people who are now a part of the National Survivor Advocate Program, including the advisory committee, to ensure that “every survivor who’s a part of this program is afforded the opportunities that they need to be able to make the difference that they are so generously wanting to make.”
On Monday, media and program advocates gathered at the IAG offices in Sydney’s CBD to hear the announcement of the twelve members –Harri, Galina, Jayke, Jocelyn, Kale, Libby, Lyn, Ranjeeta, Samantha, Sarah, Shelly, Sonya– and to view Full Stop Australia’s new educational video featuring six diverse survivor accounts.
Twenty-two year-old survivor advocate Harrison (Harri) James, bravely shared his own story leading to what he considers his “greatest achievement to date”– being part of the Full Stop Australia advisory group.
“I experienced childhood physical and sexual abuse. I was physically abused by my father for many years and taken advantage of, sexually, by my stepmother from the ages of 13 to 16,” said James.
“At 15, my stepmother fell pregnant to my daughter who, for years, I had to pretend was my sister in order to keep it a secret from my father and avoid being physically hurt from him. After my stepmother fled the country and took my daughter with her in 2019, I mourned my child’s loss and tried to take my own life. I checked into a mental health rehab and took the initiative to change my path, to utilise my story for good.”
For the first time, James came forward in March of this year to share his story publicly on Instagram and said he did so with the feeling that if he could help just one other survivor in telling his insights then he “won over those perpetrators.”
One in five women and one in 20 men over the age of 15 report having experienced sexual assault in Australia, and in the last year alone, there has been a 13 per cent increase in family and domestic violence related sexual assault.
Harri said: “The National Survivor Advocate Program is revolutionary in the way it gives survivors the platform to speak up and the opportunity to reclaim our narratives– to own our stories and utilise them for change.”
“It’s so important because as a survivor, you’re a shell of what you once were, and for there to be a national organisation that recognises you, makes you feel seen and heard and wants to assist you in your advocacy endeavours is truly phenomenal.”
“Full Stop Australia is one of the few organisations that realised the untapped resource that is lived experience and lived expertise.”
Producer of Full Stop Australia’s promotional video, Lisa Madden also took to the event stand before the video’s premier to say that she hopes the footage showing the survivors sharing their stories does justice to their courage since, “it’s a difficult topic and people don’t necessarily want to hear about it but this issue affects everyone and it needs to be spoken about.”
One of the six survivors in the video, Nanushka spoke of her lived experience and said that “every profession should be safe and there’s no difference when I’ve been sexually assaulted as a waitress, working at the office or as a sex worker. It should have never happened at any of those workplaces. I also recently found out that I am autistic, ADHD and dyslexic. Before my diagnosis, it was really easy for someone to convince me that they pushed me because they are my friend. Or that this is happening to me because they are nice and that it’s actually me who is doing something wrong and that I am impolite.”
Harri was also featured in the video and said: “Flood society with help. There should be more centres for therapy than there are McDonalds. You know where to get a cheeseburger, but you don’t know where to get help.”
Flooding society with help is what the National Survivor Advocate Program aims to do and Foster says that in order to meet the ambitious goal of ending gender-based violence in a generation, everybody needs to play their part on putting a “full stop to sexual, family and domestic violence.”