But one year on from Tara Costigan's death her family are standing strong, determined to be a force in ending this gravely serious problem.

It began as a nightmare and while Michael Costigan has made the career shift to chief executive of a foundation set up in his niece's name, he said there were days it didn't seem real.

"It has been forever confronting, no question," he said.

"The first three months was essentially full-time research for me. Who's out there, what's working, what's not and what is missing."

He put his business acumen towards making sure the Tara Costigan Foundation would contribute to the sector to create benefit rather than duplication.

From her funeral, to the huge turnout at the Walk for Tara fundraiser and close to $100,000 in donations, Mr Costigan said throughout it all "we as a family have been so loved by Canberra".

"I'm getting calls and messages through Facebook from people saying, 'how do I get in touch with a Tara's angel?'" he said.

The foundation is yet to launch the service, but Mr Costigan said TCF was in the process of selecting a successful tenderer to deliver the Tara's Angel caseworker service.

"The goal is to start in the capital region with a minimum of four in the 2017-18 financial year, next financial year we increase it to 10, the year after we increase it to 20 and start to move to other rural hubs."

The estimated operation costs of the positions, funded by TCF, are between $100,000-$160,000 an angel, each year, and each angel could assist up to 12 women depending on their level of need.

With things ticking over assembling the frontline service, TCF has ramped up its education and advocacy.

Mr Costigan will facilitate a panel discussion at the National Family Violence Summit held at QT Hotel from March 17 to 19.

The event, which culminates in the second annual Walk for Tara, will draw together people from all sectors as well as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and 2016 Australian of the Year Lieutenant General David Morrison.

"The summit is not a talkfest," Mr Costigan said.

He said the culture of "together we are strong" would be realised at the event and it would provide a report to the government similar to benchmark reports used for the Close the Gap framework.

"It's such a convoluted and complex problem, it's not a simple matter of let's find more Band-Aids to fix it," he said

"We have to get to the heart of it."