Donate

The Queen receives Starfish Award as SafeLives celebrates 21 years of change

Clarence House event marks two decades of progress and the power of survivor voice in transforming the response to domestic abuse. 

On 1 April 2025, SafeLives marked its 21st birthday with a special reception at Clarence House, hosted by our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen. Survivors, bereaved families, frontline professionals, and sector leaders joined us to reflect on how far we’ve come — and where we go next to end domestic abuse, for everyone and for good. 

To mark the occasion, we presented Her Majesty with a Starfish Award — a symbol of the ripple effect of compassion, courage, and belief in the power of individuals to make a difference. The engraved award recognises Her Majesty’s deep commitment to survivors and her role in helping to shine a light on domestic abuse — often hidden and misunderstood. 

For 21 years, SafeLives has stood with survivors to challenge the systems that failed them and to build new approaches rooted in care, safety and dignity. Her Majesty The Queen has been a central part of that story — sitting with survivors, listening to their experiences, and making it clear that they are seen, heard, and valued.

This Starfish Award is our way of recognising the ripple effect she has created by doing what abusers fear most: believing survivors. And as we look ahead, our new strategy will focus on stopping abuse before it starts, responding earlier, and supporting recovery — so that every person affected by domestic abuse gets the help they need to be safe and thrive.

Ellen Miller, SafeLives CEO,

Guests at the celebration included SafeLives Pioneers, Authentic Voice Panel and Changemakers — groups who use their experience, insight and passion to shape the response to domestic abuse.

Most recently, our Changemakers joined Her Majesty at a roundtable in 2024 and, together with SafeLives Pioneers, featured in the ITV documentary Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors, which explored the Queen’s connection to this work and the importance of listening to the voices of survivors.  

Ursula Lindenberg, SafeLives Pioneer and Trustee, spoke powerfully at the birthday reception about the importance of centring survivor leadership and lived experience in the movement to end domestic abuse:

Authentic Voice can reach in, empowering not only individual survivors, but also grassroots and by & for services that are so often the crucibles of expertise borne of experience, but who rarely have a seat at the table.

We live with trauma in this space, and that trauma is the reverse alchemy that can spin all the gold in our lives to straw.

But I see Authentic Voice as an agent of healing and justice – and your support for this, Your Majesty, and from all those gathered here, is golden.

The reception also welcomed bereaved families who have become powerful advocates for reform, helping to improve protections and responses for others. Some met Her Majesty at a SafeLives event back in 2016, where the then Duchess of Cornwall first heard from survivors directly and left with a desire to do what she could to help. She has since been a long-standing ally in our ambition to end domestic abuse for everyone, for good.  

SafeLives has been working to transform the UK’s response to domestic abuse since 2004— from the creation of the Idva and Marac systems, to pioneering perpetrator interventions through the Drive Partnership, to embedding survivor voice in policy and practice. 

Our new strategy focuses on prevention, intervention, reducing risk, and long-term recovery — always shaped by those with lived experience. 

We’re proud to have Her Majesty The Queen standing beside us on this journey. And we remain committed to a future where domestic abuse is no longer tolerated — where every adult and child can live in safety and dignity. 

About the Starfish Award 

Inspired by the story of someone gently returning starfish to the sea, one by one, the Starfish Award reminds us that every intervention matters, and that even small acts can spark lasting change.     
Read the Starfish Story

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to receive our monthly newsletters about the latest training, events, research and fundraising initiatives at SafeLives. Together, we can end domestic abuse, for everyone, for good.

Sign up