Amplifying Voices: Media, Advocacy, and Survivor Education (Session 8)

Amplifying Voices: Media, Advocacy, and Survivor Education (Session 8)

This session explores how media, research, and advocacy intersect to amplify survivor voices while confronting the systems that silence them. Amy Burrell presents research on documenting coercive control, examining methodological approaches that center survivor experiences while informing policy and practice. Natalie Queiroz, survivor of attempted domestic homicide and current Victims Advocate for West Midlands Police, shares insights on advocacy, legislative change, and centering survivor voices in criminal justice reform. Maddie Waktare draws on her media experience with U.K. charities including Victim Support, British Red Cross, and Shelter, discussing strategies for spotlighting survivors’ experiences and campaigning to improve women’s experience of the criminal justice system. Facilitated by journalist Ena Miller, whose investigative work examines how journalism silences coercive control by deeming stories too disturbing for publication, this session challenges attendees to think critically about whose voices are amplified and whose are silenced in public discourse. Together, these speakers offer concrete strategies for breaking through media barriers and ensuring survivor experiences shape both public narratives and policy responses to domestic abuse and coercive control.

Speakers