FOLLOW MY LEAD

Follow My Lead is a resource designed to build on the understanding of people responding to control, abuse and violence.

Follow My Lead is a resource that speaks from the voices of people with lived experience of domestic, family and sexualised violence who need the professionals and their social networks to be more prepared to respond in ways that uphold their dignity and build on safety.

“How you respond to me when I share with you, and in the time that follows, matters significantly to me.”

View, share and embed the Follow My Lead animation (4mins)

Follow My Lead (Booklet)

Follow My Lead Aotearoa (Booklet) (Background)

FOLLOW MY LEAD LIBRARY

The National Risk Assessment Principles for domestic and family violence outlines 7 principles which Follow My Lead seeks to amplify and uphold. Principle 1 and 3 (below) are central to the purpose and application of Follow My Lead when responding to victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexualised violence (DFSV).

Principle 1 Survivors’ safety is the core priority of all risk assessment frameworks and tools.
Principle 3 A survivor’s knowledge of their own risk is central to any risk assessment.

Reference: Toivonen, C., & Backhouse, C. (2018). National Risk Assessment Principles for domestic and family violence: Quick reference guide for practitioners (ANROWS Insights 10/2018). Sydney, NSW: ANROWS

Follow My Lead Library - examples

The Follow My Lead library shares de-identified examples of follow my lead in action. The library features experiences of responses described by victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexualised violence, and responses from responders.

Play the video to listen to the example in audio
Open the related PDF to read the audio script in text

These examples are not conclusive, exhaustive or advisory and do not provide a full context.

Reflective Questions | Victim-survivor

We asked victim-survivors these four questions:

Please describe a short specific example of when a responder (formal or informal) has followed your lead?
What was the responder doing/saying (or not doing/saying) to not take over - to follow your lead?
From your perspective, what thinking or beliefs do you think the responder had, to make it possible for them to follow your lead?
Responses can have immediate and lasting influence and impact. In the example you have given what difference do you think that made in the moment to where the conversation or contact went?

Reflective Questions | Responder

We asked responders these four questions:

Please describe a short specific example of what following a victim-survivors lead has looked like?
What is one assumption, habit, or discomfort you have to manage in yourself to not take over, in order to follow the person’s lead?
All organisations and roles have constraints and limits. Have you found a way to follow a persons lead within the constraints/rules that you can't change. What do you think about when you do that?
We won’t ever know what our approach might have meant to the victim-survivor at the time, and over time, but what difference do you think this made ‘in the moment’?