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Monday 24th – Wednesday 26th November 2025 / Gold Coast, QLD

STOP Domestic Violence Conference

Turning the Tide: Supporting Survivors and Shaping Change

Register to attend the largest sector event in Asia-Pacific, to conceptualise and strategise solutions which help STOP Domestic Violence, support survivors and shape change.

WELCOME

In 2025, The STOP Domestic Violence Conference journeys to the Gold Coast. Join us and gather with your peers as we reflect on the current obstacles facing us, brainstorm innovations and seek opportunities for change within the family, domestic and sexual violence sector.

From early intervention and coercive control awareness to legislative reform and digital safety, SDV25 will explore the most pressing issues in domestic, family, and sexual violence. Under the theme Turning the Tide: Supporting Survivors and Shaping Change, the conference will bring together experts, advocates, and frontline responders to drive systemic change, empower survivors, and challenge harmful norms.

Together, we will tirelessly work to support survivors, shape change, and end violence against women and children.

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The SDV Mission

Join us at SDV25 and you can:

  • Get involved in honest and raw conversations about the most pressing issues of the sector.
  • Explore innovative approaches to the likes of early intervention, survivor-centered care and community-led safety initiatives.
  • Gain valuable insights into prevention strategies, coercive control awareness, and the role of early intervention in stopping domestic violence before it’s too late.
  • Lend your voice, share your research or real-world insights as a presenter at the conference.
  • Be part of a solution to ending violence against women and children.
  • Gain the information you need to continue providing solutions and strategies for your organisation, team and community.
SDV provides a platform for government policy and initiatives to update, inform and seek feedback from the people who are delivering the services in the community. To end violence against women and children we will need to work together, with honesty and transparency to create solutions.

Does this sound like you?

Who attends SDV?

Here’s a snapshot of delegates who typically attend SDV:

Now entering our 11th year, the STOP Domestic Violence Conference sees an incredible selection of sector leaders, professionals, practitioners, victim-survivors and lived experience gather for 3 days of intentional sharing and learning.

Delegates include:

  • Mental Health Leadership, Strategy and Management: CEOs, Directors, Managers and Leaders.  
  • CEO, Management: State peak bodies and charities.  
  • Mental Health Medical Professionals: Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Mental Health
  • Nurses, GPs, Clinical workers, Peer workers, support workers, Counsellors, Occupational Therapists, Clinical Workers, Social Workers. 
  • Management, Service Manager, Team Leader, Case Manager, Support Worker: Community Health Services which offer DFV services (Shelters, Refuges, Emergency Housing, AOD services.) 
  • Management, Service Manager, Team Leader, Case Manager, Support Worker: Charities 
  • Protective services: Police.  
  • Management, Service Manager, Team Leader, Case Manager, Support Worker: hospital workers, family court, centrelink, lawyers, rehabilation services including correction and community-based projects, state government departments: DOCS, Housing, Social Services. 

Is SDV for you?

If you’re wondering whether this is for you.

SDV is for you if you’re looking for…

  • An understanding of early intervention strategies, coercive control awareness, and trauma-informed approaches to preventing domestic, family, and sexual violence.
  • Application based presentations to give you the practical tools required to create immediate and positive changes for yourself, your clients, your community.
  • Networking with key professionals working within your sector, to discover best practice solutions.
  • Inspiration from current research, top professionals and leaders within the family, domestic and sexual violence sector.
  • A platform to share your research, services, and case studies with your peers.
  • A break away from your every-day, to help you think bigger, more creatively and strategically.

Walk away with these learnings

What will you gain from attending?

SDV is the conference for the sector.

Here’s what you’ll walk away with after your three-day STOP Domestic Violence Conference experience on the Gold Coast:

  • Data-informed knowledge about what this sector needs right now, and what the immediate future looks like for you, your role, and your community.
  • Practical strategies for embedding early intervention, identifying warning signs, and strengthening coordinated responses to prevent domestic abuse.
  • Insights into trauma-informed care, survivor-centered support, and legislative reforms, including coercive control laws and femicide prevention.
  • Feeling refreshed with new ideas and innovative approaches to some of the sector’s largest issues.
  • Feeling energised by the changing landscape of our sector and your role within it.
  • An impressive list of ideas and plans that you can reuse, redesign, and reimagine for your own work, clients, and community.

You’ll also have:

  • Access to all recorded keynote presentations (30 days)
  • All recorded concurrent presentations (30 days)
  • All event printed materials
  • Access to the event app
  • Over 10 hours towards CPD points
  • A certificate of attendance

Here’s what you can expect

The fun stuff

Attend SDV in the Gold Coast and enjoy:

  • Exclusive networking welcome function with drinks and canapes
  • 5 star catering package for all conference days
  • Chillout mindfulness zones
  • A pay-your-own-way dinner to connect with your fellow delegates
  • The chance to win awesome prizes
  • Returning delegate gift if you’ve joined us at previous events
  • Introductions to exhibition partners to see the innovations from around the sector

Keynote Speakers

Professor Michael Salter
Professor Michael Salter

Director of the Childlight East Asia and Pacific Hub

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The SDV25 Program

Conference Theme: Turning the Tide: Supporting Survivors and Shaping Change

With the full program to be announced in the coming months, take a look at the main topics and subtopics which will form the program.

SDV25 Topics (Click to Expand)

  1. Ensuring Early Intervention to Prevent Domestic Abuse

    • Making domestic abuse everyone’s responsibility: embedding early intervention
    • From reactive to proactive: transforming domestic violence responses
    • Intervening before it's too late: early warning signs and safety planning for those at-risk
    • Challenging myths about coercive control: raising public awareness to foster understanding
    • Unmasking coercive control: understanding its role in domestic violence dynamics
    • Screening and intervening: the role of healthcare in identifying domestic violence
    • Family-focused interventions to prevent the intergenerational transmission of violence
    • Supporting the mental health of people who use violence: an overlooked factor in prevention
  2. Safer Together: Strengthening Community Engagement and Multi-agency Collaboration

    • Community-led safety initiatives: empowering grassroots responses
    • Best practices in coordinated community responses: taking a multi-agency approach
    • Addressing systemic gaps alongside specialist by-and-for organisations
    • Strengthening first responders: police and community collaboration to enhance safety
    • Co-designing culturally responsive interventions
    • Safeguarding children: the role of early information sharing and partnerships
  3. Spotlighting Trauma: Survivor Led and Trauma-Informed Approaches

    • Building trauma-informed systems: enhancing responses to domestic violence
    • Innovating shelter and support services: survivor-centred models
    • Addressing domestic violence's effect on children
    • Healing trauma: practical approaches in health and social services
    • Emergency services and trauma-informed responses
    • Engaging survivors: centring survivor voices in service delivery
    • Improving engagement with support services: reducing barriers for survivors
    • Collecting evidence with care: balancing prosecution and victim wellbeing
  4. Empowering Every Survivor: Strengthening Responses for Our Most Vulnerable

    • Reducing disproportionality in violence against women and girls in marginalised communities
    • Economic abuse and multiple vulnerabilities: tailoring responses for complex cases
    • Inclusive services for diverse communities: building cultural competency
    • Empowering young survivors: addressing the impact of domestic violence on children and adolescents
    • Empowering individuals with disabilities: addressing violence against women with disabilities
    • Understanding elder abuse: domestic violence in later life
    • Elevating Indigenous women's voices in the fight against domestic violence
    • Bridging language and cultural barriers: domestic violence responses in CALD communities
    • Inclusive practices for intimate partner violence in LGBTQIA+ relationships
    • Intersecting challenges: domestic violence, substance use, mental health, and child protection
  5. Shaping the Future: Legislative and Policy Innovations to Combat Domestic Violence

    • The National Plan to end Violence Against Women and Children: where are we now
    • Next steps for policy, funding and legislation to tackle domestic violence
    • Strengthening protections: updates on Australian domestic violence laws
    • Criminalising coercive control: lessons from Australia and abroad
    • Enhancing police responses to domestic violence: lessons learned
    • Strengthening femicide reviews: what Australia can learn from international practices
    • Navigating systems abuse and social entrapment: challenges within family law
  6. Housing, Economic Abuse and Financial Independence

    • The hidden cost: understanding and addressing economic abuse in domestic violence
    • Breaking free from economic control: legal and financial interventions
    • Financial freedom as a pathway to safety: empowering survivors through economic independence
    • No place to go: tackling the domestic violence-homelessness connection
    • The economic ripple effect of domestic violence: long-term impact and policy solutions
  7. Technology, Abuse and Safety in a Digital World

    • The digital age of abuse: understanding tech-facilitated coercive control
    • Social media, sextortion, and online harassment: protecting young people from digital coercion and sexual violence
    • AI, deepfakes and digital manipulation: emerging threats in domestic and family violence
    • Smart homes, Internet of Things (IoT), and cyberstalking: how technology is used to entrap
    • Financial and identity abuse in a digital world: restricting access, controlling lives
    • Reclaiming digital autonomy: strategies for survivors to stay safe online
    • Technology as a tool for good: innovations in combating domestic violence
    • AI and predictive tools: new frontiers in prevention
    • Digital advocacy: leveraging social media for awareness and support
    • Tech-industry accountability: partnering to combat abuse
  8. Influencers of Change: Business, Media, and Sports Shaping Gender Norms

    • Corporate leaders on the frontline: how businesses can drive social change
    • Workplace support for domestic violence survivors: policies that make a difference
    • Customer-focused initiatives: supporting vulnerable customers
    • The business case for change: why supporting domestic violence survivors makes economic sense
    • Creating safe workplaces: prevention through culture change
    • Shaping public perception: ethical reporting on domestic violence
    • Changing the narrative: domestic violence advocacy in Australian media
  9. Breaking the Cycle: Working with People Who Use Violence

    • Rehabilitation and accountability: exploring the efficacy of intervention programs
    • Preventing recidivism: ongoing monitoring and support for behavioural change
    • Restorative justice approaches: balancing survivor needs and offender accountability
    • Pathways to accountability: effective intervention programs for people who use violence
    • Breaking the cycle: mental health and behavioural support for offenders
    • Recognizing and addressing coercive control among people who use violence
  10. Engaging Men and Boys to Disrupt Violence: Challenging Stereotypes and Creating Change

    • Deconstructing masculinity: addressing societal norms that perpetuate violence
    • Addressing misogynistic behaviour: constructively engaging with boys and young men
    • The role of fatherhood in shaping respectful relationships
    • Mobilising men to prevent domestic violence: creating a generation of active bystanders
    • Sports as a platform for change: leveraging athletes to advocate for non-violence
    • Working with boys: school-based prevention programs
  11. Femicide in Australia: Confronting the Escalating Crisis

    • Counting the lives lost: addressing the rising femicide rates in Australia
    • From awareness to accountability: how do we prevent femicide?
    • Breaking the silence: the realities behind women's deaths at the hands of men
    • Lethality indicators: recognising the warning signs before it’s too late
    • Justice for victims: femicide through the lens of the legal system
  12. Indigenous-Led Solutions to Family Safety

    • Walking together: First Nations-led approaches to family safety
    • Cultural healing: integrating Indigenous practices in violence prevention
    • Strengthening kinship networks: community resilience against domestic violence
    • Addressing intergenerational trauma: breaking the cycle of violence
    • Youth leadership: engaging Indigenous young people in preventing violence
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Why the STOP Domestic Violence Conference is the one sector conference to attend

  • The STOP Domestic Violence Conference is the largest attended family, domestic and sexual violence sector conference in Australia and New Zealand with over 400 professionals attending each year.
  • Now in our 11th year, this is also the longest running conference dedicated to ending Domestic Violence in the entire Asia-Pacific region.
  • The most diverse and inclusive conference on family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia and New Zealand with dedicated streams on topics like Indigenous family violence, violence against elders, abuse within under-represented communities and Domestic abuse and family violence in the workplace.
  • The most comprehensive line-up of expert presenters coming together for 3 days to engage, discuss, connect and inspire workers in the family, domestic and sexual violence sector.
  • Over 10 hours of CPD hours available upon attendance in person at the conference.
  • Trusted and supported by over 3000 passionate leaders from the family, domestic and sexual violence sector. 

Committee

Katherine Berney
Katherine Berney

Director, National Womens Safety Alliance

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Julianna Marshall
Julianna Marshall

Manager, Policy & Education at the Central Australian Women’s Legal Service (CAWLS)

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Kai Noonan
Kai Noonan

Director of Sexual, Domestic and Family Violence Prevention at LGBTIQ+ Health Australia

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Ajsela Siskovic
Ajsela Siskovic

InTouch

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Tara Hunter
Tara Hunter

Director, Clinical and Client Services, Full Stop Australia

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Merinda March
Merinda March

Chief Executive Officer - White Ribbon Australia/Communicare

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James Lolicato
James Lolicato

COO, The Man Cave Global

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Michelle Guthrie (Rogers)
Michelle Guthrie (Rogers)

Nyumba Consulting

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Prof Sue Heward-Belle
Prof Sue Heward-Belle

 

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Juliana Nkrumah AM
Juliana Nkrumah AM

Manager, Gender Equality & Women's Safety

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Carolyn Jones
Caroline Jones

Youth Law Australia

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Patrick O'Leary
Patrick O'Leary

Professor Human Services and Social Work

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Kate Fitz-Gibbon
Kate Fitz-Gibbon

Founder Sequre Consulting

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Summah McKinnon
Summah McKinnon

Project Manager, People with Disability Australia

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Shannon Welch
Shannon Welch

Strategic Project Coordinator, People with Disability Australia

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Join Us

Registration Options

$ 499 + GST

Virtual

Save $100 with Early Bird. Ends 10/10/2025.

  • Live streaming of all keynote presenters
  • Live streaming of all sessions in the plenary room over three-day conference period
  • Virtual presentations
  • Complete online access to audio and visual presentations for 30 days*
  • Over 15 hours towards CPD points
  • Your personalised certificate of attendance

$ 1,219 + GST

In-Person | 3 Day Program

Save $300 with Early Bird. Ends 10/10/2025.

  • All keynote presentations
  • All concurrent presentations
  • Discounted accommodation rates
  • Access to conference app
  • 5-star conference catering package
  • Access to exclusive networking functions
  • Complete online access to audio and visual presentations for 30 days post-event
  • Printed conference materials
  • Over 15 hours towards CPD points
  • Your personalised certificate of attendance
  • Exposure for your organisation
  • Plus, chances to win great prizes!

$ 3,447 + GST

In-Person Group of 3

Save $900 with Early Bird. Ends 10/10/2025.

  • All keynote presentations
  • All concurrent presentations
  • Discounted accommodation rates
  • Access to conference app
  • 5-star conference catering package
  • Access to exclusive networking functions
  • Complete online access to audio and visual presentations for 30 days post-event
  • Printed conference materials
  • Over 15 hours towards CPD points
  • Your personalised certificate of attendance
  • Exposure for your organisation
  • Plus, chances to win great prizes!

Have a team of 4 or more?

Fill in this form to receive a personal call from our team with your best possible rate.

Testimonials

“An amazing array of guest speakers and researchers presenting on past, present and emerging DFV issues and experiences."

“The speakers were phenomenal.”

“Great opportunities to meet and network with so many others working and researching in this space.”

“The organising, delivery, promptness of the sessions was exceptional.”

“The presenters demonstrated deep expertise, and their discussions were both engaging and relevant to current challenges in this field.”

“Such a broad scope of issues relating to DV.”

“The sessions were highly informative, with a strong focus on evidence-based practices and innovative strategies to address domestic violence.”

“Well attended by national and international colleagues so valuable sharing ideas and networking was possible.”

“I have found presentations diverse, interesting and keeping me up to date with developments.”

“The sessions were highly informative, with a strong focus on evidence-based practices and innovative strategies to address domestic violence.”

Where It's Happening

VENUE & ACCOMMODATION

NOVEMBER 24-26, 2025
RACV ROYAL PINES RESORT, GOLD COAST

Accommodation Rates (GST Inclusive)
Room Only $250 per night
Room + Breakfast for One $280 per night
Room + Breakfast for Two $310 per night

OUR Partners

Sponsors

No to Violence

Bronze Sponsor

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Showcase Exhibit

My Safe Place

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Department of Human Services

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AFCA

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Pilbara Community Legal Service

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Get In Touch

Contact Us

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