LEFT WRITE HOOK

Child sexual abuse is alarmingly common in contemporary Australia. Unhelpful community attitudes, such as victim-blaming or discrediting children’s accounts, perpetuate feelings of shame and stigma for victim-survivors, making them less-likely to disclose their abuse and seek support. Many do not disclose until well into adulthood, or never at all.
Child sexual abuse causes an often lifelong trajectory of complex and compounding trauma, impacting the physical, social, mental and economic well-being of victim-survivors and their families.
Our community are not well-informed about the life-long impacts of child sexual abuse and how to support victim-survivors who disclose, without compounding their trauma. Professionals in our health, legal and justice sectors need support to skill-up to ensure relevant knowledge about complex trauma, dissociation and intergenerational trauma is used to improve responses to victims and survivors and policy, system and service design/delivery.

To stop child sexual abuse by empowering survivors and raising awareness among target audiences with the ability to improve the lives of survivors and prevent further harm.

OUR IMPACT GOALS:
1. Reclaim the conversation – Generate more conversations about child sexual abuse, including incest.
2. Rewrite perceptions – Challenge stereotypes, de-stigmatize perceptions of survivors and the associated complex trauma they live with.
3. Release trauma – Advocate for the widespread availability of survivor-led recovery programs, like Left Write Hook.
KEY MESSAGES
●We all have a role to play to stop child abuse.
● More than 1 in 3 girls and almost 1 in 5 boys have experienced child sexual abuse.
● Survivors are courageous and diverse and not defined solely by their abuse & trauma.
● The effects of trauma are life-long.
● Healing is possible with the right environment & support.
● Recovery programs are also prevention mechanisms – they help to break the cycle of violence and enable others to access services across the spectrum of prevention, early intervention, response and recovery.
● Survivor-led programs (like Left Write Hook) are powerful and should be supported

● The Blue Knot Foundation, the National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma, is a key impact partner for our impact campaign who will engage with their substantial community around the film and the impact campaign.
● In 2024 we have consulted with the sector about strategic uses for the film. We have identified 200+ partners that can support via hosting screenings & panels, or supporting outreach via social media, EDM, and conferences.
● The project was developed in the research space at Melbourne University (UoM) and we are working with experts from across the University to inform our resources and collaborate on cross-discipline screenings of the film.
● In addition we have begun to reach out to organisations delivering professional development training in the health sector and are exploring avenues to use the documentary/excerpts to enhance trauma-informed training for health sector workers.

We want our audiences to:
● Bring someone who knows very little about child sexual abuse to a screening.
● Amplify the voices of victims and survivors by sharing impact campaign materials and messaging.
● Host their own screenings and facilitate post screening discussions which include lived experience.
● Seek recovery and support services for themselves or their loved ones.
● Explore resources on the film website to learn about the prevalence of child sexual abuse in Australia, prevention, the life-long effects of trauma and the power of survivor-led recovery programs.
● Explore resources on the film website to learn about how to respond to disclosures of child sexual abuse from adults and children in a trauma-informed way.
● Donate to the Left Write Hook Impact Campaign.
● Donate to support the Left Write Hook Charity’s ability to train lived-experience trainers and scale up its capacity to deliver the Left Write Hook Program nationally.