Brittany Jack has a clear message about domestic and family violence: it is not background noise nor is it inevitable.
"We can change it and we should change it," she told the Newcastle Herald.
The CEO of Nova for Women and Children will be speaking at a Newcastle Domestic Violence Committee's remembrance vigil on Sunday June 21.
At 5pm, community members will gather at Gregson Park, Hamilton to remember and honour those killed by domestic and family violence in Australia this year.
Nova supports women at risk of homelessness and/or those who have experienced domestic or family violence.
Ms Jack wants to hold space for grief and pain for the lives lost throughout Australia and specifically in the Hunter community.
"People imagine that this sort of thing happens elsewhere," she said.
"They are not faceless victims, they're people who are known in our communities."
Ms Jack wanted to tell families who were touched by domestic violence that they were not alone.
She also wanted to speak out about how to tackle growing rates of violence through a coordinated community effort.
"It is beyond belief that there's not more of a high profile response to this," she said.
Domestic violence-related assaults were on the rise in regional areas, according to the March NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report released this week.
Domestic violence was up 1.4 per cent for the two years to March 2026 in regional NSW, and was up by almost 10 per cent in the Hunter Valley excluding Newcastle, and up by 7 per cent in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
Ms Jack said rises in domestic violence rates were not a blip, but instead pointed to long-term trends.
Domestic violence assaults were up 21 per cent in the past two years in Cessnock, 9 per cent in Singleton and 14 per cent in Newcastle.
"Around Muswellbrook and Cessnock, the rates of domestic violence are about double the rates in NSW," Ms Jack said.
She said every domestic violence service in the state, including Nova, was seeing the same issues on a daily basis.
"We are seeing increases in the number of women and children knocking on our door asking for support," she said.
"We are seeing increases in the amount of complexity, so people who are not just experiencing domestic violence but also related homelessness."
She called for the government to increase their funding to support services and for companies in industries like gambling and alcohol to talk about the links with domestic violence.
The Newcastle Domestic Violence Committee was encouraging attendees to bring a donation which would be distributed to local charities including new, unopened toiletries and personal hygiene items and in-date, unopened non-perishable food items.
