NGO partnerships: lived-experience expertise and participatory action research with survivors of sexualised abuse

This article examines the indispensable, collaborative role of nongovernment organisations (NGOs) as research partners in participatory action research (PAR) with young adult victim-survivors of sexualized abuse in childhood. Drawing on a multi-phase Australian study called Dignity by Design, we argue that NGO partnerships were not merely logistical vehicles for participant recruitment but epistemically and ethically constitutive of the research itself. Voluntary sector organisations provided the relational infrastructure through which lived-experience expertise was identified, mobilised, and supported. The article further demonstrates that the values underpinning these organisations, including their commitment to lived-experience expertise, trauma-informed practice, and political advocacy, created a synergy with PAR methodology that enabled emancipatory outcomes that neither university researchers nor government agencies could have facilitated alone. In doing so, it contributes to the emerging knowledge base on university–third sector partnerships and the role of lived-experience expertise in knowledge production and social transformation.