Note: This publication is not currently available online. Contact the Information Specialist. This journey map has been developed to make the factors that influence family violence visible and to reveal the reality of the lived experience from the whole family’s perspective. None of the insight is new. However the approach we have taken is different in a number of ways, i.e. we have: 1.Created a holistic, whole of family view that reveals the intergenerational, cyclical nature of the dynamic;
2. Used a visual design and journey mapping approach to create new empathy and understanding of the lived experience that can reveal opportunities to innovate;
3. High-lighted where and how we can all be part of making a positive contribution to changing attitudes and behaviours around family violence.
On the family side, we wanted to show that a perpetrator can be a partner and a father who would like to change but doesn’t know how, and that a victim can have many reasons for staying in a violent situation. We also seek to show that children who witness violence are being badly harmed, and that they can become the next generation of perpetrators and victims. The technique of journey mapping can help people to understand both the practical and emotional aspects of a complex social problem in a way less likely to be accomplished by text-heavy documents. Finally, it is clear that the work to make our families safer cannot be done by government and non-profit organisations alone. This journey map points to the roles that all in the community can play to support families in need and highlights some ‘unusual suspects’. Overall, we hope that this journey map will help support some shifts in thinking – from “unspoken” to “unacceptable”, from “not my business” to “all of our responsibility”, and from “this is how it is” to “change is possible.” (From the Executive summary). Record #4969