Award-winning podcast returns, to ask: would you notice the red flags of an abusive relationship?

FW’s award-winning podcast There’s No Place Like Home returns for a second season to uncover the early signs of abusive relationships. Interweaving real life stories from victim-survivors with the testimony of experts, There’s No Place Like Home is a call to action for listeners: Would you notice the red flags in your, or a loved one’s, relationship?

In the new series, launching on Tuesday 11 July 2023, audiences will meet eight victim-survivors who have generously shared their own experiences. Through the lens of their stories, There’s No Place Like Home explores the most common forms of non-physical abuse, including surveillance, gaslighting, love-bombing and financial abuse.

“In this season of There’s No Place Like Home victim-survivors and their loved ones share harrowing stories of a kind of abuse that is too often dismissed or disbelieved,” says FW founder and Managing Director, Helen McCabe.

“Abuse doesn’t always look like cuts or bruises. In fact we know from evidence that when a woman is murdered by her intimate partner, it is often the first time that person has behaved violently towards her”.

There’s No Place Like Home is hosted by Tarang Chawla whose own sister Nikita was murdered by her husband in 2015. Episodes explore what non-physical abuse looks like, what it feels like, and – most importantly – what to do if you suspect it’s happening to you or someone you care about.

Statistically, an estimated eight million Australians will have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from the age of 15. One in every four women, and one in thirteen men, have experienced partner violence. And based on analysis in 2015, violence against women in Australia costs our country more than $22 billion every year.

“Right now there are countless Australians out there who are worried something isn’t right in their relationship or the relationship of someone they love,” says Future Women’s Deputy Managing Director and series producer Jamila Rizvi.

“There’s No Place Like Home is a resource – backed by the advice of experts – that will mean more of us are able to recognise the patterns of power and control that underpin abusive behaviour.”

There’s No Place Like Home is a Future Women collaboration with Commonwealth Bank, which is supporting long-term financial independence for victim-survivors of financial abuse through CommBank Next Chapter.

“We are pleased to be supporting a second season of There’s No Place Like Home to help more Australians understand and acknowledge the many forms that domestic and family violence can take,” says CommBank Group Executive, Human Resources, Sian Lewis.

“Financial abuse is one of the most common forms of domestic violence and coercive control in Australia. CommBank Next Chapter is here to help end this abuse and support people on their road to long-term financial independence”.

There’s No Place Like Home articulates FW and CommBank’s vision for an Australian future in which domestic and family violence has been eradicated.

There’s No Place Like Home episodes will be released weekly from Tuesday 11 July 2023.

Listen to the podcast trailer and subscribe on Spotify, Apple or Google Play
Visit the official website
Follow @Futurewomen on Instagram and Twitter
More information on Commbank’s Next Chapter

Media opportunities:

Several victim-survivors featured in this podcast are available for TV, radio and print interviews and can be publicly identified. Other survivors can be interviewed under pseudonyms without revealing their identity.

Alex Bunton – Canberra
Alex is a professional Australian basketballer who met her perpetrator at the height of her career: she had just won a World Cup silver medal with the Opals but was in a vulnerable place personally, having had 11 knee surgeries and knowing that soon she’d have to retire. When she fell pregnant to her perpetrator and the violence escalated, she knew she had to leave. The tippling point was when her partner drained their bank account on her birthday. Alex can speak to love bombing, isolation, gaslighting, financial abuse and being a person in the public spotlight who has experienced abuse.

*Stacey (not her real name) – Melbourne
Stacey* is a victim-survivor who is now training to work in the family violence sector. She met her perpetrator when she was 20 years old and they have children together. Her abuse was exacerbated by her perpetrator’s addiction to alcohol and then to ice. Stacey can speak to financial abuse and abuse through the court system as well as surveillance and tech-facilitated abuse including email hacking and doctored photos.

Sue and Lloyd Clarke – Brisbane
Lloyd and Sue Clarke are the parents of Hannah Clarke and the grandparents of Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey, who were murdered by Hannah’s husband, the children’s father, in February of 2020. They campaign to HALT (these initials stand for Hannah, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey) domestic violence in this country, primarily by building awareness around coercive control through their Small Steps 4 Hannah Foundation. They can speak to jealousy, technological surveillance, and the impact of non-physical abuse on broader family. They make the point that they too were victims of Hannah’s killer’s coercive control.

Helen McCabe (Future Women’s Founder and Managing Director) Jamila Rizvi (Future Women’s Deputy Managing Director) and family violence experts are also available to speak.

For all interviews, assets and audio or further information, please contact:
Alice Dodge – The Comms Suite
alice@thecommssuite.com.au

Tuesday, July 11, 2023