Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls is Everyone’s Business
On the 1 November 2017, the National VAW Network held its inaugural conference at the Renfield Centre in Glasgow.
Titled ‘Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls is Everyone’s Business’, the event aimed to:
- Raise awareness of the causes and consequences of violence against women and girls.
- Highlight how multi-agency partnership working can help to improve outcomes for women and children at a local level and encourage stakeholders from a wide range of sectors to consider the contribution they can make to this agenda.
- Showcase good work happening within local communities across Scotland to prevent and eradicate VAWG and promote women’s equality.
The conference was opened by the National VAW Network’s Chair, Kerry Herriott, who spoke about the key role that multi-agency VAW Partnerships play in supporting the implementation of Equally Safe: Scotland’s Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence Against Women and Girls at a local strategic level.
There were also key note speeches from Councillor Kelly Parry, COSLA’s Community and Wellbeing Spokesperson and Angela Constance MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities who spoke about why tackling violence against women and girls is a key priority for local government and the Scottish Government respectively.
A selection of videos from conference presenters and workshops leads is available to watch below.
Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in two of the following workshops:
Other presentations included:
'Early Years Domestic Abuse Recovery - Fife CEDAR Plus Project'
Sheila Noble and Cara Mannix
'Adopting an Integrated Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Service - West Lothian DASAT'
Susan Lawson
'Domestic Abuse & Routine Enquiry Awareness Raising'
Geraldine McGivern and Sandra Hall
'Raising Awareness of Domestic Abuse Within a Custodial Setting'
Carol Dobbins and Chris Murphy
The conference concluded with a group discussion where attendees were asked to identify the actions that they would undertake as a result of the conference, which are available to download.
The conference also included a small exhibition area where a range of organisations showcased learning from work being undertaken at a local and national level to tackle violence against women and girls. Many thanks to the Encompass Network, Women's Support Project, NSPCC, the Cedar Network, the Bridges Partnership, Community Safety Glasgow: Routes Out Project, Committed to Ending Abuse (CEA) and Victim Support Scotland for speaking to delegates about their valuable projects.
If you would like more information about the conference or the work of the National VAW Network, please contact Joanna.McLaughlin@improvementservice.org.uk
Phone: 07825 928726