Hearing and Advocating the Voices of Young People Affected By Violence - In Conversation with Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, CEO, ANROWS.

Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, CEO of Australia's National ResearchOrganisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), shares some of the key discussion points from their recent national conference held on 14th - 16th May 2025 under the theme of: Listen, Learn, Act: Centring Children And Young People to End Violence. The conference brought together over 60 speakers and with over 700 people attending including youth advocates, researchers, frontline practitioners and policymakers. Recognising the importance of young people's experiences and their stories by placing them at the heart of the conversation has marked a national shift in Australia's dialogue around violence in our communities. Essentially ensuring that young people are partners at the forefront of co-designing effective, evidence-based responses to address violence in our communities. Tessa provides a clear and distinct insight from the voices of youth delegates who attended the conference who bravely shared their collective wisdom and solutions to creating long-term and effective change to the systems that are available to support them and their families in the community; and the what they see as the path forward to reducing violence. Tessa was the founding CEO of Health Justice Australia, the national centre for health justice partnership, prior to joining ANROWS in 2024. Originally a criminologist, she has worked in health, criminal justice and human rights organisations in Australia and internationally. She was previously Deputy CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service and was the inaugural Fulbright Professional Scholar in Non-Profit Leadership. Tessa’s PhD looked at the detention and release of mentally disordered offenders.