Children & young people

The power of prevention: listening to young voices can reduce the risk of future violence

9 DECEMBER 2025

Estimated read time: 8 minutes

 

Years of thought and effort have gone into ensuring children and young people are positioned at the centre of domestic and family violence policy-making – something that’s essential when policy or practice affects them directly.

In addition, acknowledging that their voices must be heard is foundational and has been topical in the past couple of years.

This is why ANROWS recently partnered with the arts and social change organisation Big hART to host a screening of the documentary, It Starts With Us. The program follows a group of students from Frankston North, Melbourne, as they take part in the transformative arts-based prevention program, ‘Project O’.

The documentary makes real the possibilities of prevention programs that meet young people where they are – in their schools and communities – and that build safety, connection and respect through creative, flexible and relationship-focused methods.

We hear their voices, but we need to hear from so many others – especially children and young victim-survivors from First Nations, LGBTIQ+, disability, rural/regional, CALD and other communities.

 

Why do we need to listen to young voices? 

Rosie Batty AO, domestic violence campaigner and Project O Ambassador and mentor, also appears in the film. As she notes, violence is not inevitable, it is preventable, and there will not be a shift in how adults treat each other unless we focus on the next generation and listen to young people.

Supported by a Big hART facilitator, the group candidly explores identity, culture, their concerns and importantly, the need to speak up. We follow their workshopping, writing and finally performing a song at their school, in an area which is experiencing high rates of family violence.

Xiao, one of the Project O participants, told ABC Radio Canberra shortly before the screening:

“Having that safe space and knowing there were people there to support me was really helpful and insightful – I got to learn a lot of things and I got to do so much and see so much. And this opportunity here now [the screening] is absolutely incredible. I got to learn really how adults view children as part of the solution and how not all of them skip over us – there are a good select few who are willing to put in so much effort to help us and that’s really good to know.”

 

ANROWS, based on our evidence, supports the need for programs to be designed for and alongside children and young people.

Their experiences of violence and their right to meaningfully participate in important decisions are often overlooked. This can create a double bind – where young people are often the target of programs focused on preventing their future use of violence but which don’t acknowledge the violence young people themselves often experience. This can leave young people feeling lectured to but not listened to.

Work with young people is critical to primary prevention since young people’s ideas and beliefs are less rigid than those of adults. Many young people also struggle to find information for themselves about what healthy, loving relationships look like – be they with peers, partners or their caregivers.

Across policy and practice we have an opportunity to correct assumptions about how children and young people are affected by family violence and their ability to take part in deep and often challenging conversations.  When we treat young people with respect and acknowledge their strength, resilience and needs, we model what healthy relationships look like and create opportunities to hear what young people see as potential solutions.

As ANROWS’ CEO, Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, noted:

“Ending domestic, family and sexual violence hinges on getting it right for children and young people and we cannot do that unless they are involved at every step, on their own terms.”

 

Connecting young people to decision-makers

In addition to the screening of It Starts With Us, Big hART launched a suite of related educational resources. These included short films, lesson plans, and educator guides designed for high school students, and to which ANROWS was a contributor.

Equally important, a panel discussion facilitated by ANROWS’ CEO, Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, brought the voices of Bailey and Xiao, young people who appear in the documentary, to key politicians in the domestic, family and sexual violence sector, including The Hon Ged Kearney MP, Assistant Minister for Social Services; and Independent Senator for the ACT David Pocock, Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Ending Violence Against Women & Children.

 

The panel explored the value of programs like Project O, with Bailey and Xiao sharing how they valued the creative freedom and space for brave conversations – built in no small part by the depth of relationships and connections established.

As Dr Boyd-Caine noted:

“Prevention isn’t just about saying no to violence; it’s about building strong relationships, respectful relationships, confidence in people to set the boundaries to being safe, and we’re hearing exactly from Bailey and Xiao what that looks like.”

 

Josephine Brogden, youth advocate, lived experience researcher and the creator and co-ordinator of the ACT Child and Youth Mental Health Sector Alliance, and The Hon Jodie Belyea MP, Federal Member for Dunkley (which includes Frankston North, where the documentary was filmed) also attended – all in the typically frenetic final sitting week of 2025.

ANROWS’ role in turning evidence into action

An ANROWS guide published in 2024, In their own right, summarises the recommendations from our children and young people’s research grant round, which focus on recognising the profound, diverse impacts of domestic, family and sexual violence on children and young people.

We must centre their voices and needs; prioritise primary prevention; acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledge of what is best for their children; design and collaborate within systems that are holistic, child-centred and trauma informed; and share knowledge across services.

Studies funded under the research round highlighted the need to amplify our efforts to genuinely respond to children and young people with unique needs, strengths and experiences of violence, services and systems.

As Dr Boyd-Caine said in her opening address to the 2025 ANROWS Conference:

“If you think of our response system as a building, children and young people have been left out of the blueprint. They’re walking through a structure never designed for them.”

Governments across Australia are, however, taking action. Initiatives like the expansion of child-specific counselling for young victim-survivors and ensuring children’s right to participate is strengthened in Family Law are just two examples.

Recently, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia launched a new Children’s Charter and Kids’ Corner. Developed with extensive input from children, the Kids’ Corner offers videos and child-friendly resources to help young people understand what happens when families go to court.

There are other clear signs of a commitment to decisions that prioritise children’s safety and wellbeing. These include Children’s Week, which each year promotes awareness of children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; National Children’s Day; and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day.

The tide has already turned, but we still have a long way to go.

 

Children and young people’s voices in research

The Australian National Research Agenda to End Violence Against Women and Children, developed by ANROWS, advocates for policy and practice-relevant research that includes children’s voices.

The agenda calls for services and systems to respond to and accommodate the voices of people at higher risk of experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence, which includes children and young people.

Research priorities created through focus groups, co-design workshops and consultations include identifying and evaluating ways to allow community voices to be more powerful in influencing practice and policy and to be included in research.

As one focus group participant put it:

“I think it’s really important to get the experiences of kids while they’re still kids. Because one thing I’ve noticed [is] you reinterpret your own experience in a lot of your adult experiences.”

 

The role of ANROWS

In the Big hART documentary, Fallon Te Paa, a Project O program facilitator, told participants:

“What we’ve learnt is that a lot of decision makers tell us what your world is and what it should look like and why, but no one sits with you and has a conversation from your perspective.”

 

This reflects a comment from Annie, one of the young victim-survivors consulted during the development of In their own right:

“In most situations we are overlooked, ignored, or barely included. This is not only an issue that creates more trauma for children and young people but can affect our physical safety as well.”

And at the 2025 ANROWS Conference, young people called for clear language (not bureaucratic jargon), consistency (not just crisis-driven responses), and authentic inclusion (not tokenism). They urged governments and services to move beyond consultation towards genuine co-design, recognising their lived expertise as essential, not optional.

As a knowledge broker, we are committed to placing the voices of children and young victim-survivors where they need to be – at the heart of policy development. And we will continue to grow wider the evidence base that supports this. We’ve got their backs.

 

 

For further information please contact:

Emmagness Ruzvidzo, Head of Communications and Media, ANROWS

E: Emmagness.Ruzvidzo@anrows.org.au
M: 0468 322 800

 

About ANROWS

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) was established by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments under Australia’s first National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010–2022). As an ongoing partner to the National Plan, ANROWS continues to build, strengthen and translate the evidence base that informs the current National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children (2022–2032).

With more than 150 research projects led, commissioned or contributed to, ANROWS delivers targeted evidence to inform practice, policy, and systems reform. We engage closely with victim-survivors, communities, service providers, governments and researchers to ensure our work reflects lived experience and supports collective action.

ANROWS is a not-for-profit company jointly funded by the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments. We are a registered harm prevention charity and deductible gift recipient, governed by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).