Featured | Featured CEO

Sue Webeck on connection, accountability and leading from where you are

Ritchelle Drilon
July 9, 2026

In the social sector, leadership is often discussed through the language of systems, strategy and reform. But for Sue Webeck, Chief Executive Officer of the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, the throughline is more human than institutional: connection.

Across her reflections, Webeck returns to the moments that shape practice and purpose – being heard, showing up, learning from community, and understanding that accountability is not the same as perfection. Her story speaks to a broader truth for Australia’s not-for-profit and social services sector: that lasting change is built not only through policy and programs, but through relationships grounded in humility, courage and care.

Sue Webeck leads the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, a specialist domestic and family violence service operating on Ngunnawal Country. As DVCS approaches its 40th year, Webeck reflects on the lessons, challenges and responsibilities of leadership in frontline social service work.

Q&A with Sue

What inspired you to pursue a career in the social sector?

The sector inspired me. I initially fell into an accidental role crossing my then passion of theatre with young people at risk of intravenous drug harm. The professionals (predominantly women) who I met through this working in the social sector amazed me. Their infinite capacity to defuse power and engage young people who were so harmed by the systems meant to support them and let down by broken promises of a better tomorrow, their connection was just so magnetic. Watching these professionals learn and listen to the young people around them without blame or punishment and repeatedly responding with kindness and empathy was mind blowing.
As a young person myself at the time, feeling disconnected to the world and unsure of who I was or where I was going, this was eye opening and frankly the young people I was working with showed me a path. A path of humility, what it was to be accountable without being perfect and how to offer what you have in service of others rather than hoard in aid of yourself. I remember a young person maybe 15 at the time, days after the death of their older sibling who was their primary caregiver, stopping past to check on me because he knew I’d be feeling the loss of his older sibling. In a moment of horrendous grief and immeasurable loss he thought of me, he thought of the human connection his sibling had.
I didn’t do anything special, I never really have, I just showed up every week and, in many moments, provided a laugh when they all realised I had zero advice, little life experience and generally no clue what I was doing. But that was enough to have value for that young man and his younger sibling, value enough that he felt the need to check in on me.
So that ultimately kept me in the sector, a lesson in action of the simplicity and importance of connection.

What is the most fulfilling part of your work?

This has shifted over my career in many ways but still as the CEO of a frontline service it is the look in someone’s eyes when they feel heard.
These days it may be a team member navigating the frustrations of the system on behalf of a client and talking out the approach and options, but I still get to connect and engage with those impacted by violence every day. When someone feels heard in a system which has invalidated their experience or not given them the outcomes they felt promised to them, that moment of human connection is always the most fulfilling part of the work.
We can change the system if we understand how it does not serve those who need it, and that should always be central to our advocacy.

What is the most impactful project you have worked on so far?

There are so many projects across my career which I feel very proud to have been a part of and have had varying impacts for the community members who accessed them.
One I am currently incredibly proud of and see the impact for individuals, but also how our service system operates, is a collaborative partnership between A Gender Agenda, Meridian and the Domestic Violence Crisis Service. Co Designing and delivering an 8-week group program for the LGBTIQA+ community impacted by domestic violence. For too long the experiences and needs of LGBTIQA+ communities have been invisible in this space and this partnership of equals demonstrates what we can do when we work together across sectors but also what can be achieved when we work with community.
It’s a big win for the ACT and I am so very lucky to be a part of it and our communities are better supported by collaboration.

What are the biggest developments you have seen in the social sector so far?

In many ways, seeing the robust public voice of the sector develop over time has been a significant development across my career.
I know that it doesn’t always play out in the way the sector/advocates wish, and we aren’t all unified about the messaging however, media willingness and coverage of matters at the core of the social sector has really increased and at times become more nuanced. Meaning that media coverage can actually help at times to push policy reform forward, bring rise to issue to government through community mobilisation and advocacy.
This has become a significant feature of the policy and budget cycles which absolutely has its down side but it just shows more community literacy and engagement with the need and value of the social sector.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing our sector nowadays?

The sheer volume and complexity of need in the communities we exist to respond to.
This is particularly complex after years of competitive tendering and services being pitted against each other to do more with less to “win” contracts, chronic starvation cycles of funding and the extensive expansion of government policy offices and service delivery areas like statutory child protection, housing services and so on.
This means needing to seek resources through areas of government which are also seeking resources out of State and Territory Budgets and Commonwealth Budgets for their operations and the social sector has to get through them to be within a breath of budget processes. The shift in these relationships over my career has been alarming, from a starting point of partnership and respect that the social sector is delivering in ways for the community which government can’t and holding considerable risk in that to a dynamic of, often distrust, over complicating funding agreements and processes, inconsistent management of contracts and positioning to set standards which we must comply with but are not required within government service delivery areas.
It is a real shame given the limitations of resources meaning allowing the sector to use the resources they do get as efficiently as they can (less red tape) would increase service outputs but also working in partnership means an opportunity for an uplift in government services and practice through partnership with frontline workforces.
It does come down to how effectively and willingly Government and the Public Service wish to defuse the power they hold over the sector to truly partner across funding, policy reform, service delivery and strategic planning for the long-term outcomes of our communities.

What emerging technology or trends do you believe will shape the sector’s future?

Without sounding like I am trying to be on trend, AI is coming at us and will change our sector in ways we are yet to imagine.
The social services sector will always need the humanity of our people on the frontline and will always be better for the truly multidisciplinary teams we get to work in and across. However, our systems are changing rapidly, I am old enough to remember coming into the sector and sharing a computer between 3 staff members. The funny thing about that is I was working on a film project and was editing, so I always needed the computer, but sharing was required.
We are now operating in environments where we have to think about privacy, ethics and legality of automated recordings and transcriptions of phone calls. Not because of a fancy package we have purchased, but because it is a standard function the phone system comes with.
The simple and often daily considerations about the addition of AI chat bots or efficiency shortcuts for stretched team members are changing our sector already, and this is only going to become more complex. Our skills, ability to understand and resources that in relation to AI, are going to become critical not only in our day-to-day work but also in how our work contributes to broader understandings of risk and/or reward of AI in our collective societal lives.

What advice would you give aspiring leaders in this sector?

Leadership isn’t about hierarchy, management or power.
Leadership can be demonstrated in every position, every relationship and every interaction we have. Don’t aspire to be a leader, lead from wherever you are, be authentic in yourself, seek out mentors, seek out feedback, truly listen to learn from those around you and think about whose voices are missing from that and always remember the right thing to do isn’t always the easiest thing to do.
Leadership isn’t about perfection, it’s about accountability.

Tell us more about your organisation. What is something unique about it?

The Domestic Violence Crisis Service is a specialist service operating on Ngunnawal Country.

Rapidly approaching our 40th year, we deliver a range of services from a 24/7 crisis line, case management, criminal justice and civil justice supports, professional consultation, case management and the list goes on and on.

We have an incredibly diverse workforce that delivers exceptional outcomes for our community, working in a truly collaborative and multidisciplinary approach. We deliver services to anyone impacted by domestic and family violence. One unique point for us, as a service built from feminist beginnings which are central to our ongoing work, is that we also deliver a Men’s Behaviour Change Program. Centering the safety of those impacted by a man’s use of violence and delivering a comprehensive Partner support program, we work to provide an accountability-based 30-week program that supports the opportunity for men to understand the choices they have made and change their behaviour, while ensuring supports are provided to increase the safety of those who have been subjected to their behaviour.

Delivering a program like this from a specialist domestic and family violence response service gives us the unique opportunity to facilitate responses for those impacted by violence across the breadth of our services, including our crisis response services and responses for children. A decision not taken lightly at the time of scoping the program which needed a deep understanding of our identity as an organisation and what our vision was, but now we stand on the shoulders of the giants who started this movement, undertook the work to imagine delivering a program like this in our organisation, and every day we see the benefit to our community in this work being undertaken by DVCS.

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