Season 7 Episode 2: 7 Years of Partnership: Survivor Leadership, Systems Change & What Comes Next
About This Episode
What happens when David turns the tables on Ruth and interviews her—seven years into their shared body of work?
In this special anniversary episode, David marks seven years since Ruth joined the Safe & Together Institute by stepping into the interviewer role. This is a founder-level conversation about vision, values, the hard work of scaling, and how systems actually change when lived experience is treated as critical professional expertise—not an add-on.
Ruth traces her journey from working with medical practitioners to helping transform Safe & Together from a training organization into a systems-change engine. She shares the deeper vision behind that shift: embedding domestic abuse–informed, trauma-informed, child-centered practice into the real operating conditions of systems through values-aligned leadership, business rigor, and strong operations. A central theme is supporting frontline workers—how poor practice, rigid forms, siloed communication, and unrealistic mandates make ethical work harder, and how better systems design can reduce moral injury and make good practice more sustainable.
Ruth also introduces the Credible Expert approach, embedding diverse, system-literate survivors as compensated contributors to design, strategy, and decision-making. Together, they offer an unflinching critique of “reduce removals” initiatives and explain what meaningful reform actually requires.
Looking ahead, they introduce SafetyNexus, a technology platform designed to coach practitioners, map perpetrator patterns, strengthen documentation, and streamline workflows—without replacing professional judgment—while centering survivor governance from the start.
This episode is both a milestone and an invitation to keep building systems that save lives and save money.
Additional Resources
Blog: Beyond Lived Experience: Why Credible Experts Are Revolutionizing Domestic Abuse Intervention
Safe & Together Institute’s domestic abuse–informed trainings
Safe & Together Institute’s upcoming events
David Mandel’s book Stop Blaming Mothers and Ignoring Fathers: How to Transform the Way We Keep Children Safe from Domestic Violence