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Ann O'Neill
Presentation topics
Ann O'Neill's topics include: - Living with Death and Laughing at Life and Learning More - Self-care for professionals working in high stress environments - Voyages of Discovery - Victims of Crime and Justice - Living with Death and Laughing at life requires, hope, humility compassion and a desire for justiceBiography
Ann O’Neil’s story is both tragic and hopeful. In 1994, her estranged husband broke into the home she shared with her two young children, shooting her and killing them before turning the gun on himself. Rather than let her life slip away, she has turned her tragedy into a calling, speaking at hundreds of events. As a speaker, her specialties include living with death and explaining how she turned loss into a fight for justice, hope, and love, rather than allowing it to ruin her life. She has a unique gift for drawing people in and forcing them to look at the deepest parts of themselves, helping to create memorable, inspiring events in both small and large venues.
After recovering physically from the shooting that took her children, Ann fought the desire to cave in on herself and kept a promise she had made to her children: she went back to school. Ultimately earning her PHD with a dissertation researching the social support for secondary victims of serious crime, she graduated from Social Work with First Class Honours in 2001. Her final thesis led to the establishment of the first web based support source for victims of crime in Australia, known as Angel Hands Inc.
Ann became the inaugural Covenor of the first WA Homicide Victims Support Group and, upon graduating, she set out on speaking tours, raising awareness for family violence and helping others cope with life after homicide. Her community work has been recognized by some of the top individuals in Australia.
Testimonials
I am writing to personally thank you for speaking at our recent forum for journalists and student journalists…. Evaluations tell us journalists found the event both interesting and informative, with many now realising their words can directly affect people experiencing violence.
Mark Glasson, Dept for Community Development
I was extremely impressed with Ms O’Neill’s skills as a trainer and her ability to get people to engage with and deeply reflect on the topic. … The formal feedback process saw staff give the sessions some of the highest feedback ever recorded for an internal training session. Further, I received numerous unsolicited informal comments from staff about how the training had affected them and challenged in a positive way their views and how they work. As a result of the training, I saw some tangible changes in staff attitudes and practices.
Michael Hovane, FDVU Legal Aid WA
I just wanted to say how brilliant it was seeing you. Your presentation was electrifying, the feedback from the students was very positive and many made specific mention of your presentation in the written feedback.
The course went very well...and your contribution played a huge part in making it successful.
Hope to see you before too long. Good luck with all the fantastic work you do of victims.
Dr Harry Blagg, Honorary Research Fellow,
Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia
I am always impressed by the courage and bravery you [Ann] demonstrate – both in getting on with your life – given the tragedy you have suffered – and also in the positive way you are assisting individual victims and also organisations.
Francis Flaxington, Head of Home Office Victims Unit, UK.
Our sincere thanks for giving such an inspirational and moving speech at the recent launch. It made the event really meaningful for everyone.
Hillary Lambert, Ministry of Justice WA
