Ten years ago, when YFS first opened its domestic and family violence (DFV) service in the Scenic Rim, DFV Client Service Manager Sarah Vuzem was told: “People aren’t ready to talk about domestic and family violence.
“It wasn’t supported because there was some belief that domestic and family violence didn’t happen in the Scenic Rim. It was considered unsafe to be speaking so publicly about domestic violence. At the time, the number of clients accessing the service was also very small.
“When we first started, we had caseloads of maybe 10 clients each and we had about 25 to 30 clients in the entire program.”
Today, the service has hundreds of clients, and domestic and family violence awareness raising events, co-organised by YFS, grow every year.
Sarah attributes this growth to patient, persistent, and steadfast relationship building.
“Being part of this community, particularly in the Scenic Rim, being here the day that we opened the doors to what was first known as the Beaudesert Domestic and Family Violence Service, people locally know me and trust YFS, and that’s helped with some of the collaborative responses we’ve had over the years, because so much of that is relationship building.”
It’s also central to understanding the issues, needs and culture in the Scenic Rim, essential insight when it comes to knowing where best to concentrate advocacy efforts. As an experienced domestic and family violence practitioner and leader with more than two decades working in the DFV and human services sectors, Sarah combines local knowledge with deep expertise to inform YFS’ advocacy and service responses.
“We’ve done a lot of advocacy. I feel really lucky in my role that I’ve always been able to influence or lead the organisation’s position on domestic and family violence.
“There’s always been a really high level of trust from leadership to guide the positions we have at YFS, and that [sector] representation is very important in this space.”
At the heart of Sarah’s advocacy is a commitment to ensuring victim-survivors are heard, supported and able to access services and responses that uphold their safety, dignity and self-determination.One position Sarah is passionate about is changing the conversation around and culture of masculinity and beliefs about gender roles.
“I think we’re working with many generations of men being conditioned to believe and think and feel in a way that has been described or given the name of masculinity. And we’re undoing generations of thinking and beliefs about that.
“So what we do on the ground level is say to men, essentially, if you’re raising daughters, be the version of equality and safety you want your daughters to choose. But if you’re raising young boys, raise them with the version of equality and safety that is never going to be wrong for any person.”
“We want women, children and families to be safer because the men in their lives are safe to be around, not be safer because they are away from them”
For Sarah, the motivation behind the work is simple. “Everyone deserves to live free from violence and have access to safety, dignity, choice and hope.”
In April 2026, YFS won a grant to formally launch a domestic and family violence prevention movement in the Scenic Rim. The movement, called Not In My Community, calls on individuals, clubs, businesses, services and agencies in our community to take an active role in preventing and ending domestic and family violence.
Sarah has been the driving force behind the movement, and its reception has shown her how far her efforts to grow and change the conversation around domestic and family violence in the Scenic Rim have come.
“Doing the Not In My Community breakfast was one of my proudest moments in the last 10 years.
“Seeing 80 people at the breakfast and knowing that they had come to have a conversation about domestic and family violence was probably one of those moments that you’re going to store away to remember that change happens over a period of time with dedication and commitment and it’s possible.”
Sarah’s approach is grounded in collaboration, accountability and the belief that lasting change happens when communities take shared responsibility for preventing violence before it occurs.
“When I do the vigils, and I do the marches, and I see the community coming out to have the conversations, it just inspires you to think about what you can achieve moving forward, because 10 years ago people thought we wouldn’t even be doing this.”
