The Resilience Circle is not your regular op-shop. Not only does it allow the community to financially support the Women’s Resilience Centre (WRC) – an organisation focused on supporting domestic violence victim survivors on their recovery journey – but also as a soft pathway for anyone to step off the street and enter a safe space that has trauma sensitive and trauma informed staff available to refer onto domestic violence recovery services and relevant community support services.
“After the Women’s Resilience Centre started in 2022, we realised we needed a connection point to the community,” Simone Allan, Founder of the Women’s Resilience Centre told Manly Observer when we visited the store.
“The more I looked around, the more I saw services like mental health services were accessed through a phone number.
“And I thought, wouldn’t it be great to have a space that connects to the community?”
The Resilience Circle began at Northern Beaches’ Friday markets and last year opened its first store on the intersection where Pittwater Rd turns into Barrenjoey Rd in Mona Vale.
While many of the shoppers are popping in for some retail therapy and a good bargain, staff at the Resilience Circle are trauma trained, meaning they can recognise, respond and refer, if needed. Whilst they don’t offer counselling services on the spot, staff can connect anyone seeking help to Women’s Resilience Centre’s services, if relevant, or to other domestic violence organisations on the Northern Beaches. There are also QR codes in the store for those who’d prefer to access support less directly.
“Most of the time, people who end up asking for help, they come in the store and shop around a few times before they ask for support from one of the staff,” Gay Raubal, Resilience Circle Store Manager, told us.
“It’s about building trust, getting comfortable. It’s not like how the public perception might be, of people coming in here all broken and distressed. They may not identify as being in a domestic violence relationship, or they may just need someone to talk to. We don’t pounce on anyone as they walk in through the door. We give space for conversations to happen, if they want them to happen, by offering tea or coffee, or good music, or some chocolate.”
In its first few months of operation, the Resilience Circle has tapped into ‘the missing majority’. According to Women’s Resilience Centre, almost 80 percent of Australian women don’t report domestic violence incidents to the police, however, 60 per cent of all police call outs are domestic violence related. In 2022, 45 per cent of women who experienced some form of domestic violence abuse but didn’t reach out for support.
“In the Resilience Circle’s first month of opening, 13 women and one man came forward to ask for help who never had reached out before – those who are part of that ‘missing majority’,” Women’s Resilience Centre CEO, Dr Gabrielle Morrissey, said.
Dr Morrissey defined the ‘missing majority’ as a large group of somewhat invisible people who experience some form of domestic violence abuse who either don’t know where to reach out for help, or make the choice, for a variety of reasons, not to seek help from domestic violence services.
“They might think their experience doesn’t qualify as needing domestic violence service support (we’re slowly changing this with the recognition of coercive control), or they might think their socioeconomic status disqualifies them from help, or they might be worried they are taking the place of someone who needs the help more than they do,” Dr Morrissey explained.
“There’s this general perception that if a woman is experiencing any form of domestic violence, they will be wrapped in support – the police will be involved, they will have court support in the court system, they’ll have a case worker, but that’s the minority.
“Most women don’t know how to access services or they don’t think their problem is enough to warrant professional support.
“You don’t need to be on the brink of homelessness and experiencing physical violence with threats against your life to be deeply traumatised and needing to get yourself and your children into a much safer and healthier environment, and then the effects of all of that take a long time to recover from, to build bust and to reestablish healthy patterns for you and your children.”
Taking a step to contact domestic violence support services can sometimes be confronting, while the Resilience Circle can offer that soft landing to seek additional information without the traditional stigma attached to domestic violence.
“The Resilience Circle is a warm, welcoming and a destigmatised environment where you can access information without revealing or disclosing too much and you can just get a feel for whatever support is out there,” Dr Morrissey adds.
It’s also another useful avenue for women trying to leave domestic violence as many have their phones tracked or monitored, while little suspicion can be raised by simply shopping.
How the Resilience Circle Store operates
In addition to Gay, there are three other staff who run the store – Marianne, Jacqueline and Katherine. Oh and we cannot forget GiGi the chihuahua, who keeps everyone on their toes. The store also heavily relies on volunteers (and are currently looking for volunteers if you’re interested – more info here).
“Our volunteers are also trauma trained – and the training is enjoyable” Gay explained.
“And we are flexible in our volunteer roster. We understand that life happens, so volunteers opt themselves in or out on days they can and can’t volunteer through our App. And it’s not only just volunteers for the shop, we need volunteers for our fundraising events too.”
Homeware and clothing donations from the public and consignment stores stock the shelves, including some high-end labels, however if you’d like to donate, you need to make an appointment (more info here). Resilience Circle has partnered with a recycling company who will repurpose anything the store can’t sell.
Besides retail therapy, the Resilience Circle offers unique programs.
“We have special events where, once a month, women who are currently in crisis care can come in and they have the whole store to themselves for an hour,” Gay said.
“We have mocktails, or tea and coffee, we play music, and they get substantial discounts and gifts which are only available to them.”
Besides gift certificates, the store also has ‘pay it forward’ vouchers. Community members can nominate an amount for these vouchers, which will then go to women in WRC programs to use in the store.
“We’re also coming up with a new initiative, which is private shopping experiences,” Gay added.
“For $10 a person (which covers mocktails and nibbles), you can book the op shop for yourself with six friends or more and then 100 per cent of the proceeds go towards WRC programs. You also control the playlist and can access items from the back that haven’t yet reached the shop floor.”
In addition to hoping to replicate the Resilience Circle model around Australia, there are also plans to reach out into regional and remote communities who may not have access to or awareness of domestic violence services.
Women’s Resilience Centre
Women’s Resilience Centre is an organisation dedicated to recovery for women who have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse and trauma. Their focus is on resetting and rebuilding lives through trauma-sensitive community, capability-building programs and a lived-experience peer-to-peer Mentoring Program. As some of their programs are online, they can reach across Australia to support women.
Since its inception in 2022, Women’s Resilience Centre has helped 507 women across Australia.
In the last five years, they’ve received $75,000 from State government to help set up the Women’s Resilience Centre, and a further $12,000 in volunteer grants. Now, their financial sustainability relies on the generosity of the community.
“Both national and state government prevention of violence plans have four pillars. Early intervention, shelter support, transitional housing and then recovery. We fall into recovery, and the government has told us that they are not focusing on funding recovery-based programs,” Ms Allan said.
“What women need is non-judgmental, lived experience support from people who can say, ‘I’ve got your back, I’ve been there’, which is where our mentoring program comes in.”
One client, who has chosen to be anonymous, said, “For those of us who have experienced DV, there is a healing and an emergence back into society that requires the support of other women who have walked this path. This is where WRC comes in.”
Ms Allan added the Resilience Circle op-shop is an important funding stream for the Women’s Resilience Centre. The other is fundraising events.
Their next upcoming event is the Women’s Resilience Centre’s Inaugural dinner: Cirque de Joy, Reset the Dial on 30 May 2025 at Luna Park which you can RSVP for here.
When you’re next in Mona Vale, make sure you visit the Resilience Circle store at: Shop 1 / 1761 Pittwater Rd, Mona Vale NSW 2103
