Lynne Callaghan, Lucy Cartwright, Emma Hazeldine, Nick Axford and Laura Gill are excited to announce that they have secured funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for – Strengthening partnerships through research to tackle male violence against women and girls in Plymouth.
It’s an ambitious project that is aiming to understand what is important for reducing and preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Plymouth.The Plymouth VAWG Commission was set up following the devastating murders in Plymouth of Maxine Davison, Sophie Martin and Kate Sheperd in Keyham in August 2021 and the murder of Bobbi-Anne McLeod in November 2021. Lynne’s involvement with the Commission led to the development of this co-produced project that will form the basis of future research to tackle VAWG in Plymouth. The project will see the University of Plymouth working with the Police and partner organisations in the area already working together in the city’s Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence PartnershipThis includes Plymouth City Council, health services and charities supporting victims or working with perpetrators. We will also be inviting members of the public who live, work, are educated in and/or visit Plymouth to become involved with the project.
This project aims to (1) understand what the Police, partner organisations and people who live in Plymouth think is most important to reduce and prevent VAWG in Plymouth, and (2) develop projects to tackle those specific areas.
This work will have three phases:
1. Identify the priorities of services in Plymouth by listening to a variety of organisations that work with victims and survivors of VAWG or support people who commit violent acts against women and girls. We will also listen to members of the public across Plymouth. These include women and girls, men and boys, women who are homeless, women who have experienced violence, women who are migrants and asylum seekers, women with disabilities, women with experience of prostitution and men with a history of violence to women and/or girls. Once we have listened, we will work with people from those groups to decide between 4 and 6 priorities that should be taken forward to the next stage of the project.
2. Map work that is and isn’t already happening in Plymouth: We will again listen to organisations and public groups to understand what is happening in Plymouth to help prevent or reduce VAWG. We will take the priorities agreed in the previous phase and map where services in Plymouth are providing support. We will also identify gaps in what people in Plymouth think they need to prevent or reduce VAWG. From this we will work with organisations and the public to identify important questions that could be answered by research.
3. Develop priority project teams: We will bring together teams of Police, partner organisations and members of the public together with researchers to develop projects to answer the research questions. We will support teams to write project proposals and either work on smaller projects or apply for funding to work on larger projects. We will present the work of the project through a variety of events in locations across the city and to a range of audiences to promote the impact of the work.
The team are looking forward to working on a project that aims to strengthen, extend and diversify partnerships and knowledge exchange relating to violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Plymouth and engage the public, including traditionally marginalised groups, to inform and drive the VAWG evidence base in the city. Why not come along to the ESRC Research Festival on the 9th November 2022 between 12-2pm at the Drake Room in the Guildhall, where the team will be presenting plans for the project, holding a panel discussion with project partners from the Police and local organisations and offering ways in which you can become involved.
Link to event information and registration via Event Brite:
The project is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health and Care Research or the Department of Health and Social Care.