Quick answer: Sharon Livermore MBE combines her lived experience of surviving high-risk domestic abuse with professional corporate expertise to deliver highly effective workplace domestic abuse training and education. Through Domestic Abuse Education (DAE), she equips employers with practical policies, safeguarding strategies, and the confidence to support employees safely.
When an employee faces domestic abuse, their workplace often serves as their only physical refuge. Yet many employers struggle to bridge the gap between good intentions and effective support. They care deeply about employee wellbeing, but they lack the practical framework required to intervene safely.
This is where Sharon and DAE provide a critical solution. After surviving a high-risk domestic abuse relationship, Sharon left her successful recruitment career to focus entirely on domestic abuse education. Her approach is highly sought after by HR professionals, safeguarding leads, and business owners because it translates raw lived experience into actionable corporate strategy.
Why does lived experience improve workplace domestic abuse training?
Lived experience provides nuanced insights that professionals cannot always learn from research or qualifications alone. Sharon understands the complex reality of coercive control, the hidden barriers to disclosure, and the complex reasons why victims may stay with a perpetrator.
However, Sharon does not simply share her personal story. She combines her lived experience with years of professional expertise supporting HR teams, universities, and business leaders. Alongside Sharon’s own experience, we also incorporate other lived experiences, shared with permission, to provide a broader understanding of how domestic abuse can affect people from different backgrounds and circumstances, including male victim survivors. This helps bring diverse perspectives into the conversation while ensuring every voice is shared respectfully and authentically. Sharon then translates these insights into practical workplace strategies, robust safeguarding responses, and clear guidance for managers.
Organisations do not just need information. They need understanding, confidence, and practical solutions to build trauma-informed workplaces.
How can the workplace become a lifeline for survivors?
“The workplace may be the only safe place someone visits each day.”
For many victim-survivors, going to work provides vital physical distance from a perpetrator. Employers have a unique opportunity to notice subtle behavioural changes and offer support before a situation escalates. Sharon teaches leaders that perfection is not required when approaching a colleague who may need support.
“Sometimes the most important thing a manager can do is ask twice,” Sharon explains. By asking a colleague how they are doing multiple times, managers create a safe opening for disclosure without putting undue pressure on the colleague.
Why is domestic abuse awareness training not enough for employers?
Many organisations implement basic awareness initiatives, but awareness alone fails to equip managers with the tools to handle a crisis.
“Awareness starts conversations. Education creates action.”
When an employee discloses abuse, leaders often panic about saying the wrong thing. Domestic Abuse Education shifts the focus from simple awareness to comprehensive workplace safeguarding. Sharon’s programmes, including domestic abuse champion training, ensure that teams know exactly how to respond, whom to contact, and how to implement safe working adjustments.
“People don’t need workplaces to be experts. They need workplaces to be prepared.”
What is the national impact of Sharon’s Policy?
Sharon’s advocacy began with a simple but powerful question: “What would employers do if this happened to one of their employees?”
Her perpetrator had hidden in the boot of her car with weapons and cable ties, attempting to kidnap and murder her. She escaped only because colleagues heard her scream and intervened. Following this traumatic event, Sharon developed Sharon’s Policy.
Today, Sharon’s Policy is a free domestic abuse workplace policy template that has been downloaded over 3,300 times by organisations across the UK. Her relentless dedication to training on domestic abuse and workplace support earned her an MBE, proving that lived experience can drive lasting national change.
Next steps for supporting your workforce
Domestic abuse support at work requires proactive planning and expert guidance. By partnering with Domestic Abuse Education, your organisation can move beyond basic awareness and build a genuinely supportive culture.
You can book workplace domestic abuse training, arrange a tailored consultation, or enquire about speaking engagements to empower your leadership team. Start taking action today by downloading Sharon’s Policy and exploring consultancy support at Domestic Abuse Education.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who should attend domestic abuse workplace training?
HR professionals, people and culture leaders, safeguarding leads, MHFA’s and line managers benefit most from formal domestic abuse education. However, general awareness education is highly valuable for all employees so they can spot warning signs in their colleagues.
How does Sharon’s Policy help employers?
Sharon’s Policy provides a clear, legally reviewed framework that helps employers recognise domestic abuse, respond appropriately to disclosures, and signpost to support.
Why should we hire someone with lived experience for corporate training?
Trainers with genuine lived experience, like Sharon Livermore, offer authentic insights into coercive control and victim behaviour. They provide practical, tested strategies that theory-based training often misses, helping employers understand exactly what interventions genuinely keep staff safe.
