Practice Advisory Group
Shardi Rees (she/her)- Founder & Convenor
Victoria Hobson (she/her) - Senior Manager, Victim Survivor Responses, Northern, Berry Street
Shardi is the founder of Common Thread Practice and convenor of the Practice Advisory Group. She established the group to bring together diverse perspectives, practice wisdom and critical reflection to support the ongoing development of Common Thread Practice and strengthen domestic and family violence-informed practice across systems, services and communities.
Victoria Hobson (she/her) - Senior Manager, Victim Survivor Responses, Northern, Berry Street
Victoria Hobson (she/her) - Senior Manager, Victim Survivor Responses, Northern, Berry Street
Victoria is a social worker with more than a decade of experience working across the children, youth, families and family violence sectors. She currently serves as Senior Manager of Victim Survivor Response – Northern Region at Berry Street and lives and works on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people.
Victoria leads a multidisciplinar
Victoria is a social worker with more than a decade of experience working across the children, youth, families and family violence sectors. She currently serves as Senior Manager of Victim Survivor Response – Northern Region at Berry Street and lives and works on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people.
Victoria leads a multidisciplinary service supporting victim survivors of family violence and their children, including specialist family violence intake and assessment, crisis accommodation case management, family violence case management, co-chairing the Northern Region High Risk Panels, and oversight of STAR, a therapeutic residential program providing short-term accommodation for victim survivors.
Throughout her career, Victoria has partnered with adult victim survivors and their children to strengthen safety, support system responses to mitigate risk, and maintain a focus on perpetrator accountability. She brings extensive knowledge of family violence service systems and is passionate about improving access, reducing barriers and strengthening collaborative responses across sectors.
Her practice is informed by an intersectional understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, disability and migration experiences can shape both experiences of violence and access to support. Victoria is committed to promoting equitable, inclusive and responsive systems for victim survivors, children and communities
Millie Reid (she /her) - Lived Experience Lead, Queenscliffe Mental Health & Wellbeing Local
Millie Reid (she /her) - Lived Experience Lead, Queenscliffe Mental Health & Wellbeing Local
Millie is the Lived Experience Lead at GGQ Local, where she provides strategic leadership to ensure lived experience, inclusivity and co-production are embedded across service design, delivery and governance.
Her work focuses on the redesign and implementation of lived experience governance structures, co-design initiatives and innovative
Millie is the Lived Experience Lead at GGQ Local, where she provides strategic leadership to ensure lived experience, inclusivity and co-production are embedded across service design, delivery and governance.
Her work focuses on the redesign and implementation of lived experience governance structures, co-design initiatives and innovative service models. She works collaboratively with clinical and non-clinical partners to develop and implement new programs, communities of practice, models of care, grant-funded initiatives and evaluation frameworks that strengthen outcomes for individuals and communities.
As Discipline Lead for the peer workforce, Millie provides reflective practice, co-reflection and supervision to peer practitioners and leadership teams across a multidisciplinary service supporting more than 250 new people each month.
Millie is passionate about practice development, collaboration and systems improvement. While not a domestic and family violence specialist, she brings valuable expertise in lived experience leadership, co-design and service innovation and is committed to learning alongside fellow Advisory Group members.
Alanah McLeod (she/her) Specialist Domestic & Family Violence Case Manager, WDVCAS
Alanah is a proud Aboriginal woman from Wreck Bay who has lived in the Jervis Bay region her entire life. As a qualified Social Worker, Alanah has dedicated her career to working alongside her community, supporting Aboriginal individuals, families, and communities through culturally safe, strengths-based practice.
In her current role as a
Alanah is a proud Aboriginal woman from Wreck Bay who has lived in the Jervis Bay region her entire life. As a qualified Social Worker, Alanah has dedicated her career to working alongside her community, supporting Aboriginal individuals, families, and communities through culturally safe, strengths-based practice.
In her current role as a Domestic and Family Violence Case Manager, Alanah works closely with victim-survivors of domestic and family violence, providing advocacy, support, and navigating complex systems to promote safety, justice, and meaningful change.
Alanah's lived experience, combined with her tertiary education, has strengthened her passion for social justice and her commitment to advocating for victim-survivors of domestic and family violence. Her practice is grounded in trauma- and violence-informed care, Response-Based Practice, strengths-based approaches, self-determination, and empowerment.
More recently, Alanah's practice has been significantly shaped by the Safe & Together Model, which she was inspired to learn through training facilitated by Shardi Rees. Since then, she has had the privilege of being mentored and supported by Shardi, gaining firsthand insight into the value and potential that Common Thread offers emerging practitioners, leaders, and advocates.
Alanah is committed to continuing to grow both personally and professionally and looks forward to contributing to safer, more responsive systems for children, families, and communities.
Kaila James-Quinn
Kate Crutch - Child Protection Practitioner, DCJ
Kate Crutch - Child Protection Practitioner, DCJ
Kate is a Social Worker with extensive experience in child protection, family support and domestic and family violence-informed practice.
Kate began her career in Broome on beautiful Yawuru Country in Western Australia, where she spent seven years working across child safety assessment and intensive family support services. During this tim
Kate is a Social Worker with extensive experience in child protection, family support and domestic and family violence-informed practice.
Kate began her career in Broome on beautiful Yawuru Country in Western Australia, where she spent seven years working across child safety assessment and intensive family support services. During this time, she worked alongside children, families and communities to strengthen safety and support efforts to prevent children entering out-of-home care.
Kate was trained in the Safe & Together model by Jackie Wruck and has integrated its principles, tools and practice approach throughout her child protection practice. She currently works with the Department of Communities and Justice, bringing a strong commitment to child-centred, collaborative and accountable practice.
Drawing on both professional expertise and lived experience of domestic and family violence, Kate is passionate about strengthening connections between systems, services and communities. She is committed to helping create shared language, stronger collaboration and more effective responses that support the safety and wellbeing of children and families.
Kate brings insight, empathy, authenticity and a deep belief that meaningful change happens when people work together across systems to create safer futures for children and families.