led by young victim-survivors#InOurOwnRight

kids don't witness family violence. we live it.

We're victim-survivors in our own right. So we're asking government for a response that's ours too - not years later, and not as someone else's paperwork.

what we're asking for

01

Fund a dedicated integrated case management and therapeutic support service for children and young people escaping violence.

One worker, one plan, one door, that belongs to the young person, not to a parent's case.

02

Fund healing and recovery for children and young people, in our own right.

Support that doesn't stop when the crisis does, doesn't need a parent's permission, and is still there for the adults who were children when it happened.

03

End the legal defence for hitting a child.

More than 60 countries have. Australia hasn't.

04

Fund and train the adults we already see.

Teachers, nurses, doctors, youth workers. More of them, and every one of them trained to recognise violence against children and young people and act on it.

05

Teach violence in the classroom.

What it is, how it looks, how it feels, what to do, and a safe, confidential way to tell someone.

06

Make it possible for a child or young person to leave on their own.

Police trained to respond to us, refuges that take us unaccompanied, child protection that backs our choice instead of sending us back.

07

Fix reporting so it never puts us in more danger.

A disclosure should never reach the person it's about without the child knowing first and a plan to keep them safe. We decide how our concern is escalated.

why we're asking

  • because it is the same violence.

    The structure that treats women as property treats children and young people as property too. You cannot dismantle half of it.

  • because the generation you promised to end it in is us.
  • because even those of us who survived mourn the childhood we didn't get.

    Having a childhood should not be a privilege.

  • because there is no good reason and no moral way to hurt a child.

    Australian law still says there is, if you're the parent.

  • because a child cannot leave.

    A woman can leave a violent partner. A child or young person cannot leave a violent parent unless someone catches them. Right now, no one does.

  • because it is not fading on its own.

    More than three in five Australians experienced maltreatment as children. Younger Australians are reporting more of it, not less.

  • because every child and young person has the right to be safe.

    Australia promised that in 1990. The right belongs to the child, not the parent.

  • because children and young people do not belong to their parents.

    They belong to themselves, and all of us owe them safety. Until the law says so, every protection has a parent-sized hole in it.

stand with us.

Add your name and we'll take it to the people with the power to fund it.

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