Feeling Visible: Empowered to be Seen and Heard

Background

Children and young people impacted by family violence often depend on adult consent to access support, limiting their agency and timely engagement with services. As Kellett (2010) notes, children are frequently excluded from decisions affecting their lives. Complex service systems can further restrict access, leaving therapeutic needs unmet and increasing disengagement from one of their key safe spaces - school. These barriers contribute to poorer wellbeing and developmental outcomes, reinforcing intergenerational cycles of violence.

In response, WRISC’s Feeling Visible program partners with schools to deliver accessible, arts-based early intervention that centres young people’s voices while supporting recovery, agency, connection, and prevention within familiar learning environments.

Aim

The Feeling Visible: Empowered to Be Seen and Heard research project aims to co-design an arts-based, early-intervention therapeutic evaluation framework that centres the voices, experiences, and agency of young people impacted by family violence. While schools are widely recognised as sites of safety and stability, many young people attend with the impacts of their lived experiences of family violence that shape their connections, engagement, learning, and sense of self.

This participatory action research engages young people as co-researchers, using a mosaic approach that incorporates arts-making, photography, reflective writing, and dialogue to explore their experiences of therapeutic support in school settings. Grounded in the Lundy Model of participation, the project seeks to validate lived experience, counter silencing and stigma, and support meaning-making, agency, and connection.

The research aims to develop a robust, evidence-informed evaluation framework that captures therapeutic, relational, and social outcomes and identifies barriers and enablers to service access. It will inform responsive, trauma-informed program delivery and strengthen partnerships between schools and specialist family violence services.

Ultimately, the project seeks to influence practice, policy, and funding by demonstrating the value of youth-centred, arts-based methodologies in improving access to support and disrupting intergenerational cycles of family violence.

Methods

This participatory action research project is informed by the Lundy Model of Child Participation (2007) and integrates concurrent therapeutic engagement and research processes. The project will involve a small group of consenting young people (n=6), aged 12–14 years, who are not currently residing with a person using violence. Across six iterative sessions, participants will engage as both contributors and co-designers, actively shaping the research direction and development through ongoing feedback and reflection.

Drawing on their lived experiences, participants will collaboratively explore why therapeutically supported spaces for young people impacted by family violence are important within school settings. A mosaic approach (Clark, 2010) will guide data generation through arts-making, photography, reflective writing, and other expressive modalities that support diverse forms of communication and meaning-making.

Researchers will also hold dual roles as facilitators and reflective practitioners, working to identify and minimise power imbalances throughout the research process. Sessions will be audio-recorded and transcribed to support qualitative analysis. Visual and creative outputs, including photographs of arts-based processes and representations of engagement, will contribute as non-verbal qualitative data. Participant safeguarding, emotional safety, and trauma-informed practice will remain central throughout all stages of the research.

Significance

Achieving the prevention of violence against women and girls and the protection and recovery of children impacted by abuse requires gender equality, as reflected in Goal 5.2 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Article 39 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Despite increasing recognition of children and young people as victim-survivors of family violence, significant barriers remain in accessing developmentally appropriate recovery supports. While frameworks such as Victoria’s Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework acknowledge children as victim-survivors in their own right, implementation gaps persist, particularly in accessible early intervention and therapeutic responses. This research is significant as it centres children and young people’s lived experiences within therapeutic and evaluative processes. Through the Feeling Visible program, creative arts therapy and participatory action research are combined to support non-verbal expression, emotional safety, agency, and engagement within school settings. Guided by the Lundy Model of participation, young people will help shape understandings of safety, recovery, and support. The research aims to inform trauma-informed practice, strengthen school-based therapeutic responses, and contribute to more responsive policy, evaluation, and service delivery frameworks for children and young people affected by family violence.

Funding Budget

$7500

Project start date

January 2025

Expected completion date

December 2026