Welcome to the website of Dr Jade Levell; Researcher, author, speaker, and activist. Dr Levell has spent her whole career working to end gender-based violence. In recent years this has been through the academic exploration of masculinity, vulnerability, and violence. As a child survivor herself, she has an unrelenting passion to work to end DVA and has worked her way from a rape crisis volunteer, refuge worker, strategic DVA Coordinator, professional trainer, and now to an academic and author. Although her roles have changed the questions have remained the same;

How do we prevent male violence? How do we ensure children are safe? How do we protect boys living with DVA and stop them from repeating harmful expressions of masculinity? How do we recover and heal as adult child-survivors? How do we ensure perpetrator accountability for victims? How do we enable perpetrators to change?

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” ― Desmond Tutu.

Dr Levell’s PhD focused on the life stories of boy child survivors of DVA who were also involved in life on-road and in gangs, who are some of the most marginalised and criminalised young people. This work has recently been released as a critically acclaimed book which was written with an aim to make real change in the safeguarding and support of vulnerable children.

Dr Levell’s research uses music as a tool to authentically hear vulnerable individuals’ life stories. To create safe spaces for listening and learning for both survivors and youth work professionals. Feminist praxis underpins all of Dr Levell’s work; gender equality and intersectionality in theory and practice.