Lusco Foundation

Lusco Foundation On a mission to transform the support experience for women living with violence and reshape the behaviour of young men.

Today’s post was supposed to be about music..🎶 For those of you that know me well know that music has saved me. But rece...
24/08/2026

Today’s post was supposed to be about music..🎶

For those of you that know me well know that music has saved me. But recently music has also been the source of my pain.

“Why does he do that?” - Lundy Bancroft (2002)

It’s a question I had to ask over and over as I was trying to figure out why someone I cared for would hurt me. I made excuses for him, changed how I interacted with people to keep him comfortable - even though it felt unnatural - and tried to justify every horrible action till I could do it no more.

A couple of chapters from this book are part of my studies for the course I’m taking in domestic violence responses. I’m doing it to help me have a broader lens for running my foundation and to better help women like me who are living with or have experienced DV leave or rebuild.

This is not what I had planned for myself for this year. I was supposed to write a whole new album, travel overseas and go deeper into being a creative with all of the freedom and confidence I’ve gained in the last few years. Instead, since the 2 January I have been trying to piece my life back together. I’ve gritted my teeth to get through the darkest of times with amazing support from my friends and family and I am of course in therapy. A lot of therapy.

This book 📕 has opened my eyes to the myths of why some men choose to use violence against the women they claim to love. Fundamentally, it’s a choice and deep down I have always known this.

As a society, we need to do more to make it socially unacceptable for intimate partner and family violence to occur. Our homes should be a safe place. If you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend this book and am always happy to have a conversation. I am open. I’m slowly getting back to being my happy self, free from oppression and pain, hugging you all and sharing in your joy.

I want to thank the amazing men in my life who have stood by me through this ordeal. I see you and I appreciate you. Darkness does in fact become light and I am determined to make something positive out of what happened. ❤️







✨ Ep. 3 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅In this week’s episode: ✔️the Lusco Foundation website is live! �→ www.lusco...
28/07/2026

✨ Ep. 3 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

In this week’s episode:

✔️the Lusco Foundation website is live! �→ www.luscofoundation.org.au

✔️conversations with women with lived experience continue

✔️conversation with a potential build partner

There's a lot more in the reel. I hope you'll watch. More soon. 🤍

28/07/2026

✨ Ep. 3 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

This week, the Lusco Foundation website is live. 🤍�→ www.luscofoundation.org.au

I'd love for you to visit, explore, and share it with anyone you think should know we exist.

Behind the scenes, I've been continuing my lived experience conversations uncovering themes that are shaping everything about how the Lusco Platform is designed.

I also had a significant conversation with a potential build partner this week. The timeline is becoming clear. And so is what it's going to take to get there which means the fundraising chapter of this journey is opening up in a real way.

There's a lot more in the reel. I hope you'll watch. More soon. 🤍



Lusco Foundation

28/07/2026

✨ Ep. 6 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

This week I have to talk about something that stopped me in my tracks.

Pauline Hanson's advice to women experiencing domestic violence: "just leave." "Don't put up with it."

I need to be very direct: this is wrong. And it is dangerous.

Leaving is not a decision. It is a calculated survival strategy. The statistics are unambiguous: the period of leaving is when the risk of serious harm and death is at its highest. Telling a woman to "just leave" without understanding what that means for her safety is not helpful advice. It is harmful noise from a position of profound misunderstanding.

I've been studying the Dynamics of Domestic Violence at QUT this week, going deep into the research. One of the most powerful readings I've encountered so far, compares coercive control to hostage situations. Not as a metaphor. As a studied, documented parallel where the psychological mechanisms of control, fear, and perceived impossibility of escape are strikingly similar.

When you understand that, "just leave" doesn't just sound ignorant. It sounds like telling a hostage to just walk out.

Women experiencing domestic violence are NOT weak. They are NOT passive. They are making constant, exhausting, life-or-death calculations — often while being monitored, isolated, and controlled in ways that are invisible to the outside world.
They deserve better than a throwaway line from someone who has a platform and a responsibility to use it wisely.

Watch the reel. I have a lot more to say. 🔥

More soon. 🤍

✨ Ep. 4 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅This week things got deeper.✔️I've just started a Graduate Certificate in Do...
28/07/2026

✨ Ep. 4 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

This week things got deeper.

✔️I've just started a Graduate Certificate in Domestic Violence Responses at QUT.🎓

✔️Corporate outreach is officially underway, so please check your inbox 📥

✔️ A deep conversation with Men's Behaviour Change Program.

✔️And then there was the debate I didn't plan to start but absolutely don't regret.

Watch the reel for more. 🔥 Out now!

More soon. 🤍

✨ Ep. 6 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅This week I am putting the build progress aside and talking about some of Pa...
28/07/2026

✨ Ep. 6 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

This week I am putting the build progress aside and talking about some of Pauline Hanson’s comments.

Aside from being ignorant, they are also dangerous. There is plenty of research available so it is reasonably easy for people to educate themselves on the dynamics of domestic violence. When someone has a large platform they have a responsibility to use it wisely.

Episode out now.

Watch the reel. I have a lot more to say. 🔥

More soon. 🤍

19/07/2026

✨ Ep. 5 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

This week the lived experience conversations continued and they're raising questions I can't stop thinking about.

Women are navigating fragmented services. Inconsistent support and varied and sometimes deeply disappointing experiences with police. I'm not here to blame. I'm here to understand. Because if we're going to build something that truly supports women through this, we need to ask the harder question: is it more training that's needed? An attitude shift? A system problem? Something else entirely?

I don't have the answer yet. But I think it's a conversation our sector needs to keep having. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

I also want to be honest about something more personal this week. Impostor syndrome hit. That quiet voice that asks whether you're really the right person to be doing this, whether you know enough, whether you're moving fast enough. It's real, and I don't think founders talk about it enough.

What cut through it was a conversation with Max, our founding Director. We did a deep dive into the Product Brief and worked through how to build the platform in a decoupled way, so that our initial service directory can be replaced or expanded as better solutions emerge. It was exactly the kind of rigorous, grounded conversation that reminds you why the right people in your corner matter so much.

And prototyping is next. The build is getting closer. 🌅

More soon. 🤍

✨ Ep. 5 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅✔️This week the lived experience conversations raised some deep questions ab...
19/07/2026

✨ Ep. 5 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

✔️This week the lived experience conversations raised some deep questions about women’s experiences with police.

✔️ With a fragmented service landscape, I further validated the need for the Lusco Platform.

✔️ I faced some personal setbacks with impostor syndrome surfacing and how I overcame it this week.

✔️ Product brief review with founding Director Max to help progress prototyping.

And what’s on for next week 🌅

More soon. 🤍

19/07/2026

✨ Ep. 4 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

This week felt like a week of going deeper.

I've just started a Graduate Certificate in Domestic Violence Responses at QUT. 🎓 Not because I needed another qualification - but because the Lusco Platform deserves to be built by someone who truly understands the landscape from every angle. This is about making the platform better, more informed, and more impactful for the women it's designed to serve.

Corporate outreach is officially underway. If you're reading this and work in a space where impact and partnership matter - check your inbox. 🌅
I also had a deeply meaningful conversation with Men's Behaviour Change Program. We went into the complex presentation of participants, including coercive control, manipulation, breaches. The kind of conversation that reminds you how nuanced this work really is, and how much the Lusco Platform needs to hold that complexity too.

And then there was the debate I didn't plan to start but absolutely don't regret.
Someone suggested a perpetrator of domestic violence wasn't good looking enough to have committed it. I pushed back. Hard. Because the idea that abuse is somehow linked to attractiveness is not just wrong - it's dangerous. It protects perpetrators. It silences survivors. It keeps ingrained beliefs intact that this sector has been fighting to dismantle for decades.
No one's appearance gives them the right to commit abuse. Full stop.
The conversation that followed was heated. And necessary. Watch the reel for more. 🔥

More soon. 🤍

27/06/2026

✨ Ep. 2 | The Lusco Build - Founder update 🌅

This week I got to connect with Melissa Sharman — author of The Beauty of Broken Things — a book about finding beauty and meaning in our most broken moments. Felt very aligned with everything Lusco is about. Special delivery just arrived and I'm opening it right here — I cannot wait to dive in 🤍 www.melissasharman.com.au

On the platform side we had another big week.

We went deep on the three women Lusco is built for:

Amara needs help right now. Minutes, not hours. Sophie is quietly planning to leave. Mei isn't sure yet if what she's experiencing counts.

The platform meets all three of them exactly where they are. No wrong door. No judgment. No forcing a linear path on a journey that never is.

We also mapped what happens when women return. Because they do. They loop back. They revisit. The platform is built for that too.

Slow and steady. But so meaningful. 🌅

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