Aurélie Pankowiak, PhD

The British Royal Family revoked Prince Andrew's title and residence after victims came forward detailing his role in their sexual abuse and exploitation as adolescent girls. Yet, the International Volleyball Federation and the Dutch Volleyball Association are allowing Van de Velde a convicted child rapist to represent his country on the world stage, met with silence from leading Australian Sport organisations. Never thought say it, but the monarchy seems more decisive on child sexual abuse than sport.

In loving memory of Virginia Giuffre - solidarity with all victims and survivors of these two men, and all those impacted by institutional decisions and silence. #safesport #princeandrew #volleyball #beachvolleyballl #adelaide2025

Honouring the national apology to survivors of child abuse through action in sport Today marks the 7th anniversary of the National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

Some of my reflections on Australian sport to mark the 7th anniversary of the National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. #csa #survivor #safesport #abuseinsport

open.substack.com/pub/aureliep...

Sign the Petition Ban Convicted Child Rapist Steven van de Velde from the 2025 Volleyball World Championship

Please sign this petition + share "We call on the Australian Government and the Minister for Home Affairs to deny entry to convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde ahead of the Volleyball World Championships [...]." SIGN HERE bit.ly/4nLpTSN

Is this what we want our profession and what we stand for (the prevention of violence against ALL children) to be remembered for when we look back on our time?

#gaza #palestine #israel #genocide #starvation #children #childabuse #childneglect #youth #youngpeople #humanrights

ICHG & ISSOP statement on Israel Gaza conflict — ICHG ICHG and ISSOP joint statement on child health during the Israel-Gaza crisis

Here's the only example I could find by international child health associations - ICHG and ISSOP www.internationalchildhealthgroup.org/ichg-issop-s...

Severe malnutrition in under-5s has tripled at Gaza City clinic, charity reports Charity says number of people needing care for malnutrition has quadrupled and blames Israeli ‘policy of starvation’

Photo from this article www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Calling all national/ international child abuse/ neglect academic/ professional associations to publicly denounce the inactions of politicians on the ongoing+livestreamed genocide of the Palestinian people. Not speaking up is being complicit. Please share/like to support.

Sport and the Catholic Church have been compared in many scientific papers before - and these recent examples show why.
Power and status over justice, healing and dignity is at the core of institutional child abuse. /FIN

... the Dutch Olympic Committee and the Dutch Volleyball Federation - enabled by the IOC rules and regulations - to represent his country, at the highest level of sporting excellence. 4/

Power of the institution prevails above human dignity.
In a way, this reminds me of the institutional dynamics that were at play at the Paris Olympic Games, when Steven Van De Velde, a convicted child rapist, was chosen by ... 3/

Seeing people rewarded with immense status and power when they have played a major role in covering up child sexual abuse can be incredibly, incredibly hard to manage. With this choice, the Catholic Church demonstrates that the stolen childhoods, justice and healing for survivors, do not matter. 2/

Today's news could be very hard for many institutional child abuse survivors around the world and I want to share my support to the survivors of the Catholic Church/ other religious organizations. 1/ #csa #childabuse #catholicchurch #popeLeo #survivor #OlympicGames #abuseinsport

Feel free to reach out for any question! APPLY HERE: vuau.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

✔️Eligibility includes:
👉Identifying as someone who's survived/ been directly impacted by child abuse in sport (psychological, physical or sexual abuse) before the age of 18.
👉Being an adult (18 years+).
👉Desire to use the insights from your experience to inform safer sport prevention strategies

🔍The project aims to identify strategies to improve community clubs’ response to child abuse sport and co-develop a framework for the involvement of people with lived experience of abuse in sport in collaborative research projects.

Our research team at Victoria University would like to invite 4/6 people who’ve experienced child abuse in Australian sport to join an advisory committee for a collaborative research project.

Join an advisory committee of people with lived experience of child abuse in sport for a research project.Have you experienced child abuse when playing sport in Australia? Would you like to assist in making community sport safer and more inclusive?Victoria University researchers and the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse would like to collaborate with those who've experienced psychological, physical or sexual abuse in sport as a child/ adolescent to better respond to and protect today's youth in community sport. Participation is financially compensated.People from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to participate.People from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to participate.Consult the Expression Of Interest, or,Contact Dr Aurélie Pankowiak (researcher with lived experience): aurelie.pankowiak@vu.edu.auVictoria University Research Ethics Project HRE24-173

🌟 Invitation: Lived Experience Advisory Committee of people who've experienced child abuse in sport in Australia - Expression of Interest 🌟

APPLY HERE: vuau.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

#childabuse #abuseinsport #safesport #CSA #CSAsurvivors #survivors #violenceprevention #childmaltreatment

Ughhh my heart goes to the family and those impacted. May he rest in peace.

Youth soccer coach charged with murder in death of 13-year-old boy The youth soccer coach who was charged in a 13-year-old’s death has also been arrested on suspicion of a separate 2024 sexual assault.

13-year-old boy murdered by his soccer coach. The coach had prior allegations of sexually assaulting a child. How did this happen? Did SafeSport and U.S. Soccer know about the allegations before he murdered a child?

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Chief Investigators (Institute for Health & Sport, Victoria University): Dr Aurélie Pankowiak, Dr @marynwoessner.bsky.social, A/Prof F.Mclachlan, Prof Parker. Project staff: Alison Quigley, Lived Experience Advocate/ PhD candidate, Alana Richardson, Research Assistant, Dr Jeffrey Bishara, Postdoc.

Stay tuned as recruitment for the lived experience advisory committee will start soon.

2. to co-develop a framework for the meaningful engagement of victim-survivors in initiatives on child abuse prevention in and gain a better understanding of the experiences of people with lived experience in joining such initiatives.

Aims of the research: 1. To identify prevention strategies to improve the capacity of community sport to recognise and respond to child abuse in sport
#safeguarding #childsafeguarding #childmaltreatment

Excited to announce new research funding partnership with the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse for a collaborative project with people with lived experience of child abuse in sport, to improve the community sport sector response to child abuse. #childabuse #abuseinsport #safesport

Thanks for updating me!

Here's some behind the scene of our project examining how the Australian sport integrity system does/ doesn't respond to gender based violence in sport.

You can follow more of my work and advocacy on my insta!
www.instagram.com/sportsurvivo...

#safesport #abuseinsport #gbv #genderbasedviolence

Their time and knowledge have to be materially valued. It is very unethical not to financially compensate them. I believe funders should request researchers to have a budget item on participants compensation and support. 2/2

#violenceresearch #sensitiveresearch #researchethics

A kind reminder to those researching violence and discrimination (researchers and research funding bodies) - when asking people to join your research project so that they share their experiences of discrimination, abuse and violence, you absolutely need to financially compensate these people. 1/2

I deeply relate to this.

Photo of Siren's pin "The Biggest Threat to Women's Sport is the patriarchy" written with the colors of the transgender flag (pink white and blue) on a lanyard with the LGBTQ rainbow.

In light of yesterday's horrendous comments against the Matildas and all women and girls in sport, I'm just going to post one photo. Dear Marty, any year 10 girl has more morals than you do.

#womensport #misogyny #matildas