Transforming the future together at the Women’s Aid National Conference

August 2, 2023

Constanze Sen (CEO), Lucy Pleass (Director of Operations) and Hannah Feld (Executive Assistant) were thrilled to attend the Women’s Aid National Conference 2023 on behalf of BCWA in mid-July.  Constanze and Lucy…

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Constanze Sen (CEO), Lucy Pleass (Director of Operations) and Hannah Feld (Executive Assistant) were thrilled to attend the Women’s Aid National Conference 2023 on behalf of BCWA in mid-July. 

Constanze and Lucy travelled on the Wednesday to receive the National Quality Mark, an award which demonstrates that BCWA provide services of high standards to women and children experiencing domestic abuse. 

Hannah then joined Constanze and Lucy for the second day of the conference which had a variety of panel discussions, guest speakers and seminar sessions, aimed at Women’s Aid member organisations. A particular theme throughout the sessions was a sense of how despite many of the organizations in attendance having roots from the 1970s the work is still vital today, due to the persistent rates of violence and abuse perpetrated against women and children in the UK. The importance of the continuation of our work, and our own persistence and perseverance in tackling this issue was repeated throughout the day. 

Lucy , Constanze and Hannah all agreed that the most powerful session was a discussion with Mina Smallman, the mother of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman who were murdered in 2020. Their deaths particularly rose to prominence after two police constables took photos of the murdered sisters and shared the images on WhatsApp groups (both the murderer and the police officers have now been jailed). Mina Smallman now campaigns to make the streets safer for women. Along with many speakers at the conference, she encouraged BCWA to continue to fight violence against women and children and to speak out against injustice. 

The conference was also an opportunity to connect with other members of the Women’s Aid Federation across the country and learn approaches to tackling shared challenges, as well as furthering the sense of  shared purpose. 

Overall it was a privilege to gather together with other vital organisations, and stand up and be counted as part of the movement tackling violence against women and children. 

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