Active Research

Community as experts: investigating the context, needs and help-seeking pathways for child sexual abuse survivors and their supporters in the NSW Bega Valley

    • Needs of victims and survivors
    • Disclosure of child sexual abuse
    • Response to child sexual abuse
Research Topic areas 
  • Community awareness
  • Government & policy responses
  • Regional, rural & remote
  • Therapeutic responses
Project Duration
Start: July 2023
End: June 2025
Geographical Scope
NSW
Populations
Victims and survivorsGeneral communityWorkforce
Young adults (18-25 years)Adults (26-65 years)Older adults (>65 years)
Gender
All genders

Project Lead

Kristina Brenner, Sapphire Neighbourhood Services
Suzanne Milligan, Sapphire Neighbourhood Services
Project lead email: kristina@snsi.org.au

Project Team

Professor Lynne Keevers, University of Canberra
Dr Christopher Pardy, Sapphire Neighbourhood Services
James Brown, Sapphire Neighbourhood Services
Michelle Bonner, The Peregrine Centre for Social Innovation

Background

This project is the first research study to investigate the context, needs and help-seeking pathways of adults affected by child sexual abuse in the NSW Bega Valley. This is an under-explored topic area across many rural Australian communities.

Aims

The project aims to identify ways to improve the healing journeys, and the formal and informal support structures, of people in the Bega Valley who have been directly or indirectly impacted by child sexual abuse. It will also explore situational barriers to child sexual abuse disclosure, help-seeking and support in rural communities.

Methods

This research adopts an embedded mixed-methods approach using the lens of collaborative inquiry, whereby participants are actively involved in all stages of the research process. Data collection will primarily involve anonymous telephone interviews and online surveys with 100 child sexual abuse survivors and 100 child sexual abuse support persons across a 12-month period. The research findings will be articulated from thematic and quantitative analyses and corroborated via focus groups and local service mapping.

Significance and Dissemination

This research will result in place-based solutions and participant-generated recommendations for agencies and community members to support victims and survivors and their support persons, opportunities for advocacy and localised self-organising responses to addressing child sexual abuse in the Bega Valley, and the option for participants to immediately access professional supports relating to their own experiences and healing journeys.

Further Details

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Funding body:
The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse
Funding budget:
$178,743 grant
Monitoring and governance:
This project is guided by oversight of the Project Advisory Group
Australian Human Research Ethics Committee:
This project is subject to ethical oversight by the University of Canberra Human Research Ethics Committee
Prevention of child sexual abuse

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.

Emma Rees
Queensland University of Technology
Needs of victims and survivors

Supporting Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: Rapid Evidence Reviews

Michaela Guthridge
The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse
Understanding child sexual abuse

Ngagagee Ngulu Murrup Durra (‘The Ngagagee project’)

Graham Gee
Murdoch Children's Research Institute

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Needs of victims and survivors

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.
Supporting Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: Rapid Evidence Reviews
Ngagagee Ngulu Murrup Durra (‘The Ngagagee project’)
Evaluation of the Multi-Agency Investigation & Support Team
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
Enhancing the capability of Australia’s Primary Health Workforce to respond to child sexual abuse
Improving legal, policy and practice responses to the intersection of domestic violence perpetration and child sexual abuse offending
Investigating experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure and disbelief in the Family Court
Understanding the experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure in Australia in the wake of the Royal Commission
Building trauma-responsive sexual health and relationship education
Learning from victims and survivors about what helps disclosure and responses to child sexual abuse
Amplifying the voices of victim-survivors: Advancing the harmful sexual behaviour evidence base – the Ava project
The dignity by design project: survivor-led system redesign
Supporting continuous quality improvement in safeguarding at Hockey Australia and other national sporting organisations
Evaluating a harmful sexual behaviour education program in a residential care setting
Enhancing the capacity of rural and regional respectful relationship educators
Creating safer futures: raising public awareness of child sexual abuse among young adults through digital storytelling
Survivor perspectives on institutional use of child sexual abuse material
The more I talk, the stronger I get: unlocking our past to free our future

Prevention of child sexual abuse

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.
Preventing child sexual abuse by understanding perpetrators’ motivations
Ngagagee Ngulu Murrup Durra (‘The Ngagagee project’)
Preventing repeat child exploitation material offending: An international evaluation of the CEM-COPE Program
Conceptualising and Estimating the Costs of Child Sexual Exploitation (Phase One of Australian Study into Economic Costs of Child Sexual Exploitation)
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
CHANGE – curtailing harm and navigating growth: evidence for change pathways of young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour
Evaluating a harmful sexual behaviour education program in a residential care setting
Developing and implementing a framework for abuse prevention through culture change and organisational development
Building a knowledge frame for responding to the needs of children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour
Australian Child Maltreatment Study
Strengthening relationships and connections for young people in therapeutic residential care
Differentiating adverse childhood experience profiles of male youths who exhibit harmful sexual behaviours

Identification of child sexual abuse

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
Enhancing the capability of Australia’s Primary Health Workforce to respond to child sexual abuse
Supporting continuous quality improvement in safeguarding at Hockey Australia and other national sporting organisations
Evaluating a harmful sexual behaviour education program in a residential care setting
Developing and implementing a framework for abuse prevention through culture change and organisational development
Children and Young People’s Safety Project
The safeguarding capability of adults in Catholic Church ministries: a global perspective

Disclosure of child sexual abuse

Ngagagee Ngulu Murrup Durra (‘The Ngagagee project’)
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
Enhancing the capability of Australia’s Primary Health Workforce to respond to child sexual abuse
Improving legal, policy and practice responses to the intersection of domestic violence perpetration and child sexual abuse offending
Investigating experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure and disbelief in the Family Court
Understanding the experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure in Australia in the wake of the Royal Commission
Learning from victims and survivors about what helps disclosure and responses to child sexual abuse
Supporting continuous quality improvement in safeguarding at Hockey Australia and other national sporting organisations