Pop In Newsletter March 2025
At Pop In we walk alongside women and children who are the victims of domestic violence and abuse. In doing so, we’ve seen how the very systems designed to protect them, often fall short. These systems are slow to respond, rigid in their rules and disconnected from the realities of those they are meant to support and protect.
Author, Advocate and Educator - Jess Hill (photo Jack Hill ABC News)
Because Pop In is entirely philanthropically funded we’re not bound by the limitations of government contracts or service timeframes. We are not bound by initiatives that aren't aligned to our community. This freedom gives us the flexibility to meet women and children wherever they are in their journey and to stay with them for as long as they need us.
Their experiences guide our continuous improvement. We adapt, respond and evolve in direct response to the feedback and needs of those we support. And, because we know domestic violence takes many forms and doesn’t look the same for every family, we understand that recovery also doesn’t look the same.
It’s for all these reasons that Jess Hill’s latest Quarterly Essay "Losing It" resonated so deeply with me. Her essay is not an attack on the sector. It’s a plea for honesty, humility and collective courage to confront the reality that, for far too many women and children, things are simply not being address nor improved.
If, as a nation, we’re truly committed to ending gendered violence within a generation we need to stop relying on the same approaches that have failed to accelerate progress. What’s needed now is a whole-of-community response that welcomes diverse voices, especially those with lived experience of the systems that have traumatised them time and time again.
Jess challenges the overly simplistic notion that gender inequality is the single root cause of violence. While gender inequality is undeniably a key driver, it does not exist in isolation. Contemporary research and our work with our clients shows us that trauma, alcohol abuse, mental ill-health, social isolation and childhood maltreatment are all contributing factors. Ignoring these reinforcing factors is not only a strategic oversight, it is a systematic failure of a silo approach to supporting the women and children in need.
As Jess highlights in her essay, we don’t need to abandon the existing prevention framework, but we must acknowledge that it’s incomplete. Importantly, we must be willing to adapt when the data and the voices of those impacted show us we’re missing the mark.
The backlash to Losing It has been telling. Rather than engaging with its evidence, some have clung to familiar lines: “Stay the course”, “Don’t distract from the mission.” But who defines the mission? And what does it say about us if asking questions is discouraged.
Real change demands courage. It calls for reflection, flexibility and a strategy agile enough to evolve. Nothing should be off the table when the lives and safety of women and children are at stake.
There’s no quick fix, but there is a better way. One that values truth, welcomes difficult conversations and that treats lived experience not as commentary, but as the compass guiding direction.
All women and children impacted by domestic and family violence deserve a national response that is as complex, courageous and human as the stories they carry.
Thank you, Jess, for your thoughtful and brave contribution to this vital conversation.
Vicki Kelley
Chair and Co-Founder
Photo: ABC News Jack Fisher Story publication date 17th March, 2025 abc.net.au
Celebrating International Women's Day
The theme this year for International Women’s Day (IWD) on the 08th March was March Forward for ALL Women and Girls reminds us of all of the importance of rights, equality and empowerment. As we mark the 30th year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action the world is still deeply unequal. IWD 2025 was a chance to rise and demand action to deliver on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, to make the world equal and better for everyone.
Pop In representatives have been involved in many IWD events. I was privileged to represent Pop In at the breakfast launch of the IWD campaign at Parliament House, Canberra; speak at our Wingecarribee Shire Council IWD breakfast at Park Proxi (pictured above) and join the Southern Highlands Business Women’s Network IWD lunch at Milton Park.
Some of our staff attended the Through Children’s Eyes Conference, Campbelltown joining our local police and service providers to learn from prominent local and national thinkers about the impact of domestic violence on children. For a child, being unsafe in your home, witnessing unsafe behaviours of immediate family members shatters your worldview of love and safety.
Additionally, a number of Pop In Directors attended the NSW State Parliament House IWD breakfast and many of us joined in the wonderful community atmosphere of Dirty Janes Hope on a Hanger event.
Through all these events, we are reminded that Pop In is an integral part of the global effort with a vital role in supporting our community to March Forward for All Women and Girls.
Yes, sometimes the scale of this challenge can feel overwhelming. The statistics are heavy. The systems are slow. But then, the universe reminds us why we do this work.
Sarah at IWD Breakfast
Just last week, I received a call from a woman we had previously supported. She wanted to tell us how far she’d come and she said something I’ll never forget, “Pop In saved my life.” Because of Pop In’s support and her commitment to changing her life, she had become stronger and more informed. This amazing woman was able to help her mother, her daughter and her grandchild escape violence. Four generations protected, empowered and no longer stuck in silence or fear.
This is what change looks like. It may not always make headlines — but it is real. And it is happening here at Pop In, thanks to you.
At Pop In, every woman and child who walks through our doors carries a story, and every step they take forward is a testament to the power of community.
Sarah Mangelsdorf
General Manager
Other insights this month*;
Nearly 1 in 3 women and girls worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence during their lifetime, in Australia that equates to 1.7million women, 92,700 of whom experienced by intimate partner in the past 12mths. That number jumps to 2.3million for psychological and emotional abuse, coercive control. In Australia, conflict-related sexual violence surged by 50%, almost 1/3 were girls. That’s below the age of 18.
Our girls do better at school and university than boys, but the gender pay gap tells us that women will earn 78c to every $1 equating to a loss of $28K p/a, our older women will retire with 38.8% less superannuation than men, only 1 in 4 boards have women representatives and 84% of CEOs in Australia are men.
Prof Anne Summers released the findings of The Cost: The Cost of Domestic Violence on Education and Employment. Domestic violence impacts women going into higher education, staying there for their degree and subsequently being able to remain in employment. Women experiencing domestic violence have 5.3% lower employment rates than those women who had never experienced violence, the gap is larger for women who experienced economic abuse, higher again for culturally and linguistically diverse and First Nations women.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare DV research published this week reported 7,790 of 19,000 participants, that 41% did not know where to go for information or support if they or they knew someone who was experiencing domestic violence.
Children who witness domestic violence are more likely to enter a violent or coercive relationship, or become a perpetrator. The intergenerational violence continues.