When Natalie Walker was in her early twenties and not long married, it was revealed that her husband had been accessing images of child sexual abuse on his computer. When the internet was still in its pre-Google days, these horrendous crimes were so underground that they were not even fully understood by law enforcement agencies. Natalie Walker is the founder and CEO of PartnerSpeak, a multi faceted organisation offering peer support and advocacy for traumatised non-offending partners and families of perpetrators of on-line child sexual abuse. Natalie’s lived experience saw her marriage end and she soon discovered there was no support to help her through this traumatic time. In 2012, Natalie founded PartnerSpeak when she discovered that many non-offending partners were often blamed, shunned and punished for the crimes of their partners. This also extended to their children. In 2017 Natalie was announced as a recipient of the Churchill Fellowship for her work in exploring peer support as a trauma-informed response to the families of offenders. Natalie also sits on two national working groups as part of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation. You can reach out to PartnerSpeak or find out more about them here: PartnerSPEAK Peerline: 1300 590 58 www.partnerspeak.org.au If this program or subject raises issues for you, help is always available Lifeline Helpline: 13 11 14 Helpline: 1800 99 10 99
