Give a Book – A Book for Every Refuge Bed

Broken to Brilliant's goal is simple yet powerful: to place a book on every refuge bed in Australia, ensuring survivors have access to stories of resilience and guidance for rebuilding their lives.

The Give a Book program enables individuals and philanthropic groups to help domestic violence survivors rebuild their lives by providing them with books that offer hope, inspiration, and practical strategies for recovery. Through this initiative, Broken to Brilliant donates copies of its four books—Broken to Brilliant, Terror to Triumph, Shattered to Shining, and Coerced to Courageous—to domestic violence refuges and transition services across Australia.

Funding the Give a Book Program

The Give a Book program is made possible through generous grants and funds raised via the Container Exchange Program. In late 2024, we were thrilled to receive a grant from the Community Bank of Beenleigh, Bendigo Bank, which funded 10 sets of our books. These books are now providing domestic violence survivors with hope, inspiration, and the tools to heal, recover, and rebuild their lives.

Making Our Goal a Reality

Broken to Brilliant Directors Jamie and Karen presented the books, funded by Community Bank of Beenleigh, Bendigo Bank, to the Wesley Mission in Beenleigh. Tracey. from Wesley Mission, expressed her heartfelt gratitude for these resources and is eager to share them with her network and the women and families they support directly.

We packed and posted six sets of books for the Women's Community Shelters in New South Wales, their Teams are excited to receive these books. These books will be placed in their shelters, offering vital encouragement and guidance to survivors as they navigate their journey to safety and recovery.

Behind the scenes, our volunteers carefully packed the books and made trips to Office Works for the printing of letters and to the post office—every step driven by our mission to ensure survivors know they are not alone.

We have sent our books to refuges in Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Victoria and Tasmania, there are still states and territories to reach and many more refuges to reach.

How to Request a Set of Books

By completing the Give a Book Request Form, domestic violence services can request books from the Give a Book program. In return, we ask services to provide feedback and a short testimonial on the books' impact.

How You Can Get Involved

Purchase a set of books

You can support survivors by purchasing and donating a book (or a full set of four) to a refuge/shelter. Each book costs $29.95, or a set of four can be purchased for $100. Your contribution ensures that more survivors gain access to life-changing stories and strategies for rebuilding their futures.

Recycle and Give

We are proud to announce that this April 2025, Container Exchange Lawnton has chosen Broken to Brilliant as the charity they support this month.

Get collecting, drop off your containers at Lawnton or use our Charity Container Exchange Scheme ID: C100296698 at your local Container Exchange to ensure your donated containers are allocated to Broken to Brilliant Charity.

Re-Collect

If you need your containers collected, we have also partnered with Re-Collect. This is a great option for businesses collecting containers in their lunch areas and offers an easy way to support Broken to Brilliant when your busy team does not have time to drop off the containers.

You can order a collection by using this link https://app.re-collect.com.au/brokentobrilliant

The Books That Inspire Change

Each book in the Broken to Brilliant series shares powerful real-life experiences of domestic violence survivors. They highlight practical steps survivors have taken—physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually—to move from crisis to strength.

Broken to Brilliant: In Broken to Brilliant, 10 women share their unique stories to help readers understand the many different shapes domestic violence can take. And yet the focus of this book is not on the horror, but the healing. Each woman shares the skills, techniques and attitudes that helped her to shine once again. "This book is inspiring and helpful” – clients Chisholm Refuge"

Terror to Triumph: In Terror to Triumph, 11 women and 1 man have penned powerful stories of the terror they experienced and the additional challenges they encountered from a system that was supposed to help them. Most importantly, they tell of the practical steps they have taken – physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually – to journey from darkness to light and build new lives.

Shattered to Shining: In Shattered to Shining, nine women and one male domestic violence survivor describe how they were shattered as their home was the place where physical and sexual violence, emotional and psychological control dominated their lives. Through their persistence and courage, they have journeyed away from being shattered by the abuse. Each chapter is filled with the shortcuts and tools needed to travel this road of recovery to stand in their new life, with their future brightly shining.

Coerced to Courageous: In Coerced to Courageous, ten courageous female survivors describe the insidious fog of coercive control. How the first ‘Red Flags’ are so small you don’t even notice them: a simple remark about how to do something, ‘the right way’ or a suggestion about how you should dress. Eventually, he makes all the decisions. These brave, resilient and brilliant women have penned their fight to bring themselves and their children happiness, freedom and peace. They want to encourage you to break the chains of coercive control and create a life you deserve.

 More Than Just Books—A Path to Healing

These books are more than just stories—they are powerful testimonies from survivors, written for fellow domestic violence survivors. Each page offers hope, strength, and practical guidance to help navigate the journey of healing, recovery, and rebuilding. Our wish is that that each page survivor’s turn will guide them to a new chapter in their life”.

Thank You for Supporting Give a Book

Behind the scenes, volunteers work tirelessly to write letters, print materials, package postage bags and deliver these books to shelters. We cannot do this without you, thank you.

Thank you to all who support the Give a Book program, whether through donations, grants, or collecting cans and bottles through the Container Exchange program. Every contribution helps us bring hope and empowerment to survivors across Australia.

Join us in placing a book on every refuge bed in Australia.

Together, we can ensure that every survivor has access to the stories and strategies they need to rebuild their lives.

For more information or to donate a book, visit our website www.brokentobrilliant.org.

Our gallery of Give A Book recipients