Violence Against Women and Girls Summit Held at Bournemouth University

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On the 6th March 2024, Bournemouth University hosted a Violence Against Women and Girls Summit.

Background: Drs Louise Oliver and Orlanda Harvey (Senior Lecturers in Social Work, Bournemouth University) in partnership with Soroptimist International Bournemouth and the BCP Community Safety Partnership ran a conference last year on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). A reoccurring conversation at the conference was: what next? How do we stop VAWG happening again?

A full report of the outcomes can be found in the report by Dr Oliver and Dr Harvey [https://sigbi.org/bournemouth/joint-report-on-vawg-conference/]

The need to challenge culture led to the team getting together with the addition of Dorset Womens CIC and the charity Acts Fast, to organise the Summit with the intention of bringing together a range of key decision makers form across all those organisations that are on the frontline, working to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls.

The Summit:

The keynote speakers were Superintendent Emma Sweetzer and Dr Kari Davies. Emma emphasized that her role “involves challenging stereotypes and changing a culture from within the force out to the wider public” and her speech was a call to action and Kari presented her research in this area focusing on the barriers and challenges to police and Crown Prosecution Services joint working on rape and serious sexual offence cases.

The summit delegates were regional professionals who work in different areas, under the umbrella of Violence Against Women and Girls, including police, social services, policy makers and managers of charities and researchers. The summit conversations focused on finding solutions to challenging the culture surrounding violence and abuse, and through bringing people together, to think together, and start to develop new suggestions and challenge the issue head on. How to change culture, with a focus on the need to start early and focus on education was at the heart of the discussions.

For further information about the summit, please see the BBC news article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-68484626

Following this summit, Dr Harvey and Dr Oliver were also interviewed on BBC Dorset and BBC Solent radio, to further talk about VAWG and why this summit was so important. You can listen to the interviews on https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hct37f?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

And

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hct465?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Our next steps will be published in our next report which will be available on the Bournemouth Soroptimists website.

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