WEAVERs 10-year celebration

On Monday we celebrated 10 years of the WEAVERs.

The WEAVERs are a group of women with lived expertise of domestic, family violence and/or sexual violence. They ‘weave’ their lived expertise into research and training within the Safer Families Centre and RESTORE Centre.

Over the last 10 years, the WEAVERs have had many achievements, including being involved with over 50 projects, co-authoring numerous publications, presenting at national and international conferences, and co-designing and delivering countless training sessions for health professionals, researchers and students, just to name a few!

In a panel discussion at the celebration on Monday, facilitated by Katie lamb, Lily F, Martina Eaton, Fiona and Kelsey Hegarty shared what they’ve learned from being involved with the WEAVERs group, either as lived-experience experts or researchers.

They talked about the importance of having designated lived-expertise roles in research, to ensure there are people in the room who contribute specifically from their viewpoint as a victim-survivor.

They also highlighted how important it is for those with lived-expertise to be surrounded by infrastructure that provides support, capacity building and safety mechanisms that ensure everyone has a positive participatory experience. The peer support that WEAVERs members provide each other was highlighted as something the group values.