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EVENT: Darkness to Daylight | 1 to 31 May 2023

Darkness to Daylight is a 110km run where each kilometre represents one of those lives lost. It is a long distance, challenging both mentally and physically. Participants come together to run and walk in teams to support each other. You can run, walk, 3km or all of it, all that matters is that you do it with a purpose, and join us in standing up to domestic and family violence. When we run, a candle lights the way – a symbol of hope to pass onto those who need it most. Our candles let those ex...

New Coercive Control Laws for Queensland

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described coercive control as an intentional pattern of abusive behaviours that lie at the core of domestic and family violence.Challenge DV is encouraged by the development and is optimistic it’ll lead to increased understanding of coercive control before it becomes an offense later in the year.Acting Chief Executive Officer Keith Tracey-Patte said it’s vital that first responders, employers and the broader community is informed about coercive control and what ...

Challenge DV’s Amy Cook spoke to 4BC’s Spencer Howson to shine a light on coercive control and the actions individuals can take to make a difference

Domestic and family violence is often not visible. Coercive control can lead to isolation, fear and long-term health and economic impacts for those being abused, including children. The 2022 report by the Domestic and Family Violence Death Review and Advisory Board has found that in a significant proportion of domestic violence deaths, the fatality was the first instance of physical violence. But coercive control is almost always present in an abusive relationship....

Meet the team: Saesha Stowers

Saesha has been working with Challenge DV since May 2022, having completed her secondary studies.She’s our amazing moderator, so if you take one of our workplace programs, she is typically behind the scenes making sure our customers have a seamless learning experience.Saesha’s also a whizz at administration and analysis, turning data from our customer surveys into meaningful intelligence to support us to create even better experiences for our customers.Outside of work, Saesha loves Korean fo...

Thank you for all your support this year

As 2022 draws to a close, the Challenge DV team want to thank all our incredible partners and supporters for being with us for the year and supporting us to make an impact as we work towards ending domestic and family violence together. Whether it be taking part in our workplace programs, Darkness to Daylight or one of our social impact initiatives, we are endlessly grateful for the community we have built around our shared mission to end domestic and family violence. Thank you for being pa...

Meet the team: Enisy Pratha

Enisy joined the Challenge DV team in October 2022, having graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Marketing, from Swinburne University of Technology.  This is Enisy's first job following graduation, but she has gained valuable skills and experience throughout her studies, including a Digital Marketing internship with a not-for-profit, working as a Market Researcher in the Global Victoria Intellect Program 2020, and as a Marketing Assistant. Enisy also worked as...

Looking UNDER COVER to understand the women’s homelessness epidemic

We were delighted to welcome around 50 guests to a special screening of UNDER COVER, a documentary exploring why women over 50 are the fastest growing group of people experiencing homelessness, at Elizabeth Picture Theatre last night.  The event, part of Challenge DV’s 16 Days of Activism activities, included a panel discussion on the key themes of the film and exploring what we can do to address it.   There are so many contributing factors, but domestic and family violence is a...

Engaging the CCF to recognise, respond and refer to domestic and family violence

Our wonderful Workplace Programs Manager, Sian Fullerton, was invited to talk about how to recognise, respond and refer when a colleague may be impacted by domestic and family violence at the Civil Contractors Federation Queensland's breakfast yesterday morning.Over 50 Seymour Whyte crew members attended the site breakfast held in Pimpama, which was set up to engage CCF members about domestic and family violence during 16 Days of Activism.With thanks to Civil Contractors Federation Queensland CE...

Connecting communities to create change: Afghan community insights event

We were delighted to welcome 40 Afghan community leaders and experts to a special event during 16 Days of Activism 2022 to share insights on the causes of domestic and family violence and initiatives that would make the most impact for its prevention in the Afghan community in Australia....

Harnessing technology to create change: the Queensland government's eLearning story

“The Public Service Commission has taken a leadership role across the Queensland public sector to ensure all agencies remain committed to building workplace cultures where everyone feels safe and respected,” Sandra Lerch, Executive Director, Strategic Workforce Futures, Public Service Commission. More than 85,000 Queensland government employees have now taken part in Challenge DV’s market-leading workplace eLearning. It's testament to the government’s commitment to ensuring its workforce...

Partnering for impact: MinterEllison renews partnership with Challenge CV

MinterEllison, one of Australia’s leading law firms, continues to demonstrate its commitment to ending domestic and family violence by renewing its long-term partnership with Challenge DV. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the partnership, which began in 2002 when Challenge DV, or Australia’s CEO Challenge as it was then known, was incorporated....

Inspiring the next generation to #ChallengeDV: St Teresa’s Darkness to Daylight story

"This experience has shaped what I'd like to take forward in life, in being a good person" Jack, Darkness to Daylight participant. St Teresa’s Catholic College Noosaville has been participating in our Darkness to Daylight challenge for many years and have taken its mission of ending domestic and family violence and run with it. Literally. Since 2017, St Teresa's has run a groundbreaking program for a select group of Year 10 students who learn how to identify and respond to domestic...

Darkness to Daylight: towards 10 years of impact event

Last week, we held a special event with some of our amazing community to share plans for Darkness to Daylight’s 10th anniversary next year and how we will make even more of an impact to end domestic and family violence. Huge thanks to our incredible Foundation Partner, MinterEllison, for hosting the event at their beautiful Brisbane office. ...

Meet the team: Michael Jeh

Former first-class cricketer and Oxford Blue, Michael now works as a wildlife ranger in Africa, and he is also a public speaker and a facilitator/educator with over 15 years’ experience in the domestic and family violence prevention space. ...

Meet the team: Chrissie Keynes

Chrissie has worked in education for 17 years and in many different settings from early childhood through to adult education. Her main love is connecting with people and inspiring others to discover the power they have to make positive change in their lives and the lives of others. Chrissie has always been passionate about mental health and wellbeing which led her to retrain as a counsellor where she am able to tap into her passion for wellbeing in all areas of mental health. ...

Meet the team: Trent Larkman

Trent, who is based in Sydney, is a specialist violence prevention and response training practitioner. He is a registered Social Worker and has a background in men’s family violence counselling and community engagement. Trent combines his passion for engaged pedagogy with his experience of working with men who use family violence to deliver collaborative, engaging and insightful training sessions to build on people’s confidence and skills to reflect on themselves and create change in their e...

Meet the team: Tamara Pallos

Tamara originally trained as a lawyer but retrained as a counsellor after realising that her keenest interests lay in promoting wellbeing.  She has a track record of working in the domestic and family violence field.  As a counsellor, she spent many years doing frontline work with both domestic and family violence victim-survivors and perpetrators.  She has also held policy and advocacy roles related to domestic and family violence, most recently as the Sector Development Manager ...

Challenge DV becomes White Ribbon Australia approved training partner

Challenge DV is pleased to announce that it is an Approved Training Partner for White Ribbon Australia. Through this partnership, workplaces across Australia who are undertaking the White Ribbon Australia Workplaces Accreditation Program can take part in a Challenge DV workplace program to support their accreditation. Challenge DV is currently one of three providers nationally who are approved to deliver this training. Sian Fullerton, Challenge DV’s Workplace Programs Manager, said: “Domest...

Making every step count to end domestic and family violence through Darkness to Daylight

Darkness to Daylight is Challenge DV’s community education, awareness and fundraising event for domestic and family violence prevention. It is a 110km challenge, with each kilometre symbolising a life lost through domestic and family violence in Australia in the year the event launched. The event was developed by Robert Reed OAM, Special Counsel at MinterEllison. Following a life-changing trip to participate in the American Indian Movement's Sacred Run held in Japan in 1995, Rob developed the...

Supporting women fleeing domestic and family violence to access information in their own language

Women who are fleeing domestic and family violence can more easily find information they need about refuges in their own language, thanks to a new guide. Challenge DV has partnered with the Combined Women’s Refuge Group of South East Queensland (CWRG SEQ) to develop the short guide, which outlines information about Queensland refuges for women considering fleeing domestic and family violence, translated into 15 languages. CWRG is the peak body representing the domestic and family violence refu...

Connecting Queensland’s diverse communities to end domestic and family violence

Over 80 leaders from across Queensland’s multicultural communities, together with domestic and violence service providers, gathered at a special event in May 2022 to explore ways to end domestic and family violence together. Dr Faiza El-Higzi OAM, a member of the Queensland Government’s Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Council was the Master of Ceremonies for the event, and featured talks from MinterEllison, Challenge DV, Micah Projects’ Brisbane Domestic Violence Service, the Refug...

Playing our part to end domestic and family violence

We partnered with the Champions of Change Coalition, No to Violence, Our Watch, The Full Stop Foundation, UNSW Gendered Violence Research Network and WESNET to release a framework with practical actions and resources for organisations to advance their approach to the prevention and response to domestic and family violence in the workplace. Playing Our Part: a Framework for Workplace Action on Domestic and family Violence is the fourth collaborative report to be published by the Champio...

Delivering trauma training to frontline First Nations domestic and family violence services

In 2021, the QBE Foundation partnered with Challenge DV to ensure that frontline domestic and family violence service workers who worked in First Nations communities in Far North Queensland received essential training to support those who have experienced trauma. Following sector consultation, Challenge DV identified that many of the domestic and family violence frontline service workers based in Far North Queensland and First Nations communities had not received any trauma training as part of t...

Connecting workplaces with frontline domestic and family violence services

Challenge DV's partnerships connect workplaces directly with frontline domestic and family violence services to support them where they need it most, in this case with Chisholm. Chisholm is a womens refuge, which has an amazing team who work tirelessly to support the courageous women - and their children - who are leaving domestic and family violence situations to get back on their feet. We are proud to connect them with the Brisbane Taylor Bridge and Brookfield Rotary Clubs through our partne...