Developing the Empowerment Star
2nd Edition
It’s been fascinating to learn from so many different practitioners, experts and people with lived experience of domestic abuse. It was brilliant to see that the work would benefit people being supported and the people supporting others in a really impactful way
We’re excited to launch the Empowerment Star 2nd Edition, the Star for people who have experienced domestic abuse/family violence. The new Star is the result of a comprehensive and in-depth review that began in autumn 2023.
In this article you can read more about the development of the new version, with comments from Harriet Wills, Product Lead at Outcomes Star, and Lottie, a worker at Changing Pathways about developing and reviewing the Star.
Why review the Empowerment Star?
The original Empowerment Star came out in 2011 and was developed with Eaves Housing who provide refuges and other services for women affected by domestic abuse. The support landscape and understanding of domestic abuse has changed in the years since the 1st Edition was released. We wanted to ensure it was working as well as possible in 2025 for practitioners and people being supported.
Harriet Wills, Product Lead at Outcomes Star says, “We wanted to review the Star to bring it up to date and check in with practitioners to discover if they felt it was working as well now as it did then. We wanted to ensure we were bringing in a more trauma-informed, strengths-based and culturally inclusive approach specifically looking at the language we used. We really took the time to do this, so the process has been quite a long one. This has meant we could undertake considerable research and involve all the right people that we needed to who were using the Star as well as experts in the field and people with lived experience of domestic abuse.”
Domestic abuse remains prevalent across all areas of the UK, and across all sections of our society. There are many different forms of abuse – including physical, sexual, identity-based, economic and financial, honour-based, stalking and harassment, coercive and controlling behaviour.
There is rarely just one victim of domestic abuse – it affects whole families, and whole communities. We also know that the most vulnerable in society often find it hardest to access support.
3.9 million people aged 16 and over in England and Wales are estimated to have experienced some form of domestic abuse in the last year ending March 2024. 2.3 million female (9.5% of women) and 1.5 million male (6.5% of men) victims.
Collaboratively reviewing the Star – the process
Second phase of development
The development review process began with a first phase of gathering views from a range of practitioners and experts by experience. This included a client questionnaire, and practitioner focus groups with both UK-based and Australia/Aotearoa New Zealand based practitioners. We also held a focus group with experts by experience, co-facilitated by experienced staff at Voices, a domestic abuse charity. This involved women with lived experience of domestic abuse who reviewed the draft and provided feedback on the language, outcome areas and Journey of Change.
A comprehensive research literature review was conducted by our Evidence and Validity Lead, Dr Anna Good, which included definitions and terminology in the abuse sector, equality, diversity and inclusivity research and relevant policies and frameworks in the UK, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. From this research, an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was created. This research and initial feedback were used to inform the writing of the first draft of the new and updated Empowerment Star 2nd Edition.
Further focus groups were held to review updated drafts with practitioners from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the UK (all of whom took part in the first focus groups)
Consultants/contributors included:
- Cat Everett, a Domestic Abuse Consultant and Strategic Leader
- Amy Stephenson, Co-director at Unique Outcomes, who has extensive experience in the domestic and family violence sector as well as in homelessness and family services
- Lottie, Changing Pathways (UK)
- Debbie Cannon, Lead and Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) for the Trans Without Abuse initiative
- VOICES Charity Bath (UK)
- National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges (Aotearoa New Zealand).
For a full report on how both the first and second editions of the Empowerment Star were developed please click the link below:
At a glance: what the new version offers
The new Star is:
- Inclusive
- Clearer
- Up to date
- Anti-victim blaming
- Sensitive
We really enjoy using the Empowerment Star with our clients and seeing that journey and how far people come. I'm really excited to start rolling the new Empowerment Star out to people and hopefully they will notice a difference in it as well. I know that the practitioners will, and I think that the changes that have been made have only added to the usefulness of it as a tool to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse.”
Development and change in the Empowerment Star 2nd Edition
A key finding from the research into updating the Star was the need to make the language and scope of the Star more inclusive. We adjusted the language to make the Star more inclusive of people from a range of backgrounds and to acknowledge aspects of people’s identities including race, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, and immigration status. This included making the language used to refer to the person being supported gender neutral.
Harriet says, “The original Empowerment Star was only intended for use with women. But we did find in our survey and our focus groups that 40% of services were using it with men and 70% were using it with women in same sex relationships. And they did find it effective. So, we wanted to ensure that services were able to use their expertise and knowledge of the people they support to judge for themselves who the Star was suitable for.”
We also chose to adapt the language and concepts in the User Guide – renamed the Conversation Guide – to recognise issues of particular relevance for indigenous people in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand – for example connection with one’s culture, and issues of discrimination. The updated Star leaves open the possibility that someone may remain living with the person/people who had been using abuse.
During focus groups and reviews with the experts and people with lived experience of abuse, the changes in language to be more inclusive were widely considered and welcomed. We were also very aware that women make up the majority of people who experience abuse and were keen to ensure any changes to the language felt right for women and the services who support them. Because the language changes focus on being gender neutral and using ‘you’ and ‘your’ vs gendered language, the aim is for services to be able to tailor the way they use the resources for the people they support.
I really like the new Star. I like the growth in it. I like the fact that the language is a lot more inclusive."
Lottie, a worker at Changing Pathways, a charity based in Essex who support people who have experienced Domestic Abuse and other forms of inter-personal violence, was one of the experienced professionals who shared her views on the changes.
Lottie says, “I really like the new Star. I like the growth in it. I like the fact that the language is a lot more inclusive. There’s many barriers when it comes to supporting male victims of domestic abuse and stalking, and the wording feels a lot more inclusive now of all victims of domestic abuse and family violence. It’s really helpful because as practitioners, we’re not having to change the way we’re talking. We can read from it, and they can read it themselves if we’re in person.”
The aim of these changes is that every person who needs support can find themselves in the Star as they work with services and professionals supporting them.
Evolving outcome areas and the Journey of Change
The new version of the Empowerment Star features changes to the structure of the Star in the outcome areas and changes to the Journey of Change.
Harriet says, “I think the biggest general change across the Star was greater acknowledgement of the external factors around how somebody might be feeling at the point of using the Star. So, for example, when people are at the Stuck stage, which is the first stage in the Journey of Change, we have really acknowledged all the reasons somebody might not feel able to reach out for help or to accept help at that stage.”
This includes other areas across the Star where the ability to make change may be almost completely outside of a person’s control – for example with housing. Harriet continues, “We know that that’s a very difficult situation that’s often outside of people’s control. So, in the outcome area around accommodation we’ve put more in there about acknowledging the frustration and anxiety that people might be feeling because of the system that they’re in.”
Other changes to the structure of the Star include changing the outcome area ‘Work and learning’ to ‘My time’ which was broadened to include aspirations and hobbies, interests and caring responsibilities. Another change was in the newly renamed ‘Who I am’ outcome area which now includes issues of identity around culture, spirituality and gender. The updated ‘Legal issues’ outcome area places more emphasis on the individual choice for a person to take legal action or not, with acknowledgement it may never feel safe to do so and making informed decisions about whether to take legal action.
More details on the full changes in the new version of the Empowerment Star can be found in the change table, and the Development Report.
New resources for a new Star – a brand-new look for the Empowerment Star 2nd Edition
As part of the update to the Empowerment Star we felt the time was right to update the Star resources. We’re excited to share the first new designs for an Outcomes Star in a decade!
Harriet explains why we chose to update this Star with brand new designs. “We have a new brand for Outcomes Star to better reflect our values and who we are as an organisation, and we wanted the new Empowerment Star resources to reflect this. However, we didn’t just want to rebrand it, we took the opportunity to gather feedback from practitioners and people being supported on the design and functionality of the resources and have now implemented this in the new resources.”
“The User Guide is now called Conversation Guide to reflect the fact that the process of completing a Star is all about a conversation between a person supporting and person being supported. We heard from practitioners and people being supported that the previous Journey of Change illustrations were not right to show this journey and so we have used icons and a road visual to show this instead.
We also heard that numbers on the Journey of Change are helpful for some and not for others, so we have colour coded the Journey of Change and created optional number-free versions of the Star Chart that can be used if this is right for individuals being supported.”
The new resources also feature new design and colours. Lottie says, “from an aesthetic side, I really like the colours and that the colour change in it makes it feel a lot less clinical. It’s really nice that it feels a lot more engaging to even read as a practitioner so for clients, that’s going to be even more engaging.”
Collaboration and feedback – looking ahead
Being involved in the Empowerment Star review has been really, really positive. I don't have a bad word to say about it. Anything that has been put forward has been considered, looked into, and follow-up questions have been asked as well. It's been really interesting as well, seeing what the Empowerment Star is now, what we've been using for the past three years and what we're going to be using, the development of it and the growth of the Star itself and how the wording has changed so it's become a lot more inclusive of all victims. It's been really fun to be part of the process because it's meant that I can bring the experience of my work in which has been really lovely.”
Many people contributed to the review of the Star, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who gave their time, effort and expertise to develop the 2nd Edition.
We are always interested in hearing the views of practitioners using this and other Stars. Over the next few months, we will be encouraging existing users of the Empowerment Star to switch to the new version and collecting feedback on the new version and new resources. Please click the link below to read more about switching to the new version.
If you’d like to share your experience with us, please get in touch.