Embolden is South Australia’s peak body for specialist domestic, family and sexual violence services, across the continuum of prevention, early intervention, response, and recovery and healing.
Our vision
A world free from domestic, family and sexual violence, where women, children and all people are valued, respected and able to flourish.
Our purpose
A strong collective voice for specialist domestic, family and sexual violence services, to better prevent violence and improve the safety and wellbeing of victim-survivors.
Our values
Underpinning our vision and purpose, Embolden’s values are:
Safety
Women, children and all people have a fundamental right to be and feel safe.
Equity
Equitable access to domestic, family and sexual violence services, no matter who you are or where you live.
Dignity
Recognition of the inherent value of all people and their right to respect and agency.
Justice
People using violence are accountable, within systems that uphold the safety, dignity and rights of victim-survivors.
A proud history
For more than 40 years, Embolden has been advocating for the safety and wellbeing of women, children and all people impacted by domestic, family and sexual violence.
Embolden is proud of its origins in the women’s safety movement when, in the early 1990s, local women’s shelters from across the South Australia formed the Coalition of Women’s Domestic Violence Services. The Coalition was an unfunded grassroots collective, where members came together to share practice wisdom and to advocate for the needs of victim-survivors, including specialist services.
We acknowledge the leadership of those women and Coalition members since, on whose shoulders Embolden stands today.
In 2019, the Coalition received funding for the first time from the Marshall Liberal government, and Embolden was launched. Until 2025, Embolden was supported by and co-located with Women’s Safety Services SA, the state’s largest provider of specialist domestic and family violence services.
Since July 2025, Embolden has proudly operated as an independent peak body representing providers of specialist services in South Australia’s domestic, family and sexual violence sector. Embolden’s membership now includes specialist sexual violence services and services working with people who use violence, as well as Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations delivering Aboriginal community-led responses. Embolden recognises the longstanding leadership of Aboriginal communities in responding to violence within a context of the ongoing impacts of colonisation and the vital importance of self-determination for Aboriginal people.
Our commitment
Embolden works with and for members: organisations in South Australia that deliver specialist domestic, family and sexual violence services, across the continuum of prevention, early intervention, response, and recovery and healing.
In the current reform context, we aim to shape systems and services to transform how we prevent and respond to domestic, family and sexual violence. Embolden members bring over 40 years of specialist expertise to this task.
Embolden is committed to:
- the value of specialist expertise, and upholding and strengthening the specialist sector.
- centring victim-survivors, including children and young people, and continuing to learn from and act on lived expertise.
- maintaining our tradition of feminist advocacy, recognising structural
- gender inequality and gendered dynamics of power as key drivers of gender-based violence.
- cultural safety and actively supporting Aboriginal leadership and self-determination in our sector.
- responding to the unique experiences and disproportionate impacts of domestic, family and sexual violence for Aboriginal people, LGBTIQA+ people, people from migrant, refugee and multicultural backgrounds, people
- with disability and people living regionally/remotely, and supporting community-led solutions.
- recognising and addressing systemic barriers and inequalities experienced by diverse community members.
