Follow My Lead
Background Rationale:
Being safe is no simple or single decision, or task. When we (any person responding to someone experiencing Domestic and Family Violence (DFV)) are ‘aware’ of DFV but don’t have an understanding of it our responses can be unhelpful and worse, harmful.
Many publications and resources speak about DFV and about the people who experience it. Few publications and resources speak from the first person voice of people with lived experience, outlining what being safe to talk to means, and how significant responses are.
Domestic Violence Service Management is a registered charity whose purpose is to build individual and community safety and wellbeing. DVSM has been listening to and learning from the lived experience of the people it supports, and from others who have chosen to share their experience, and through a project undertaken to understand Concepts of Safety. In addition to these learnings, we have been able to draw on insights from literature and from collaborators to develop this resource in an informed way.
Follow My Lead is designed to not only build on awareness of what DFV is, it is also designed to build understanding of lived experience. We hope that ‘Follow My Lead’ will contribute to more positive social and service responses to people experiencing DFV.
Acknowledgement and Thanks:
Domestic Violence Service Management would like to thank all contributors, critical friends and communities, who have engaged directly or indirectly with our Concepts of Safety Project and this Follow My Lead resource. In particular, Sightlines, the Professional Services of DVSM would like to thank Dr Linda Coates and Dr Allan Wade and their colleagues at the Centre for Response-Based Practice, Canada for their visionary and pioneering work on social responses, resistance, language, and the upholding of dignity.
Most significantly, our thanks goes to all people with lived experience of Domestic and Family Violence who have courageously shared their insights for the benefit of others.
From Prototype to First Edition:
In early 2018 Follow My Lead was circulated in prototype for feedback across contexts. The feedback has been collated into a Follow My Lead – Feedback Summary Report. The report includes the feedback that has been provided by individuals, including people with lived experience of DFV, and how this feedback has informed the content and format of the first edition.