Reflection’s From an Inspiring Year.
As 2025 draws to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on an inspiring year for Represent Women. It’s been a year of advocacy, collaboration, and laying strong foundations for the future. Here’s what we’ve achieved together and what’s next. We are still learning and growing, and will continue to keep the views and needs of the women and girls sector at the heart of everything we do.
Celebrating the Sector
We are continually astounded by the breadth and depth of work happening across the women and girls sector. Our membership includes organisations tackling domestic abuse and sexual violence, women’s centres, theatre groups and filmmakers, young women and girls groups, peer support networks, and health and counselling services.
The impact of these organisations is immense, not only for women and girls but for society and the regional economy. We must value and nurture this vital work. We have learnt about many of the women and girls sector organisations and the vital work they do for our communities and for society in the North East. We have posted about them on social media, talked about them to decision makers and policy makers and championed the work that they do with elected members and officers in Local Authorities (LAs) and Combined Authorities (CAs).
Amplifying Voices Where it Matters
One of our biggest priorities this year has been ensuring that the voices of the women’s sector are heard in key strategies and decision-making spaces. We met with MPs to advocate for the inclusion of women’s sector perspectives in the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy.
To strengthen this work, we created briefing papers and wrote an open letter to MPs, asking for their support in making sure our voices are represented in the VAWG strategy. We also provided feedback on several strategies and action plans published by NECA and were proud to be named as a contributor in the Child Poverty Action Plan.
In addition, we supported a region-wide campaign to lift the two-child benefit cap, standing alongside partners to challenge policies that disproportionately impact women and children. You can find a selection of our reports on our website.
Represent Women and wider networks and connections
Collaboration has been at the heart of our work. We’ve attended and supported many networks, including Transforming Together, the North East Anti-Racism Coalition, and the Women’s Homelessness Alliance. These spaces have been invaluable for sharing insights, learning from others, and amplifying the collective voice of the sector. It has also been great to support Connected Voice Women and Girls network.
We held the first sector-wide pilot network in South Tyneside and Sunderland, and we’ll use the learning from this to roll out more networks for our Tier One members in the New Year. We also launched our first Women Sector Leaders Connection Space, a dedicated space for leaders to share, reflect, connect, and offload the unique burdens of leadership in the women and girls sector.
Why Building Strong Relationships Matters
We know that real change happens when decision-makers understand and value the voices of those on the front line. Building strong relationships with MPs, local authorities, and regional bodies is key to ensuring that the needs of women and girls’ organisations are reflected in policy and practice.
We’ve appreciated every thoughtful interaction and opportunity to amplify the voices of the sector this year. These conversations have helped us highlight the incredible work being done and advocate for the resources and recognition the sector deserves. We look forward to more opportunities to feedback and challenge as a critical friend and a voice for the women and girls sector. There is a lot more to achieve.
Strengthening Our Foundations
Behind the scenes, we’ve been working hard to strengthen our organisational foundations. This includes enhancing our reporting capabilities and fine-tuning our CRM systems to ensure we can capture and use information effectively to track our goals and requirements. These improvements will allow us to share clearer insights into our progress and keep our members better informed.
We’ve been out visiting many women and girls sector organisations and attending inspirational events. Along the way, we’ve discovered new organisations doing incredible work. We’ve made our list (and checked it twice!) and will be reaching out to those we haven’t yet connected with in 2026.
Looking Ahead
In 2026, we’ll embark on a sector-wide research to explore the true value of the women’s sector. We’ll continue meeting with more organisations, strengthening relationships with networks, and exploring new ways to bring value to the sector. We have some exciting projects in the pipeline, which we will share in due course.
Thank You!
None of this would have been possible without the support of our Management Group and Steering Group. Your guidance and commitment have been instrumental in everything we’ve achieved this year. Another special thank you to Tyneside Women’s Health, who have ‘incubated’ Represent Women in the run-up to becoming our own charity. To decision-makers, funders, commissioners, policy makers, and elected members: thank you to those who believe in our vision and have engaged with us on this journey. For those we’ve yet to work closely with, we look forward to building meaningful partnerships to create lasting change for women and girls.
To everyone in the women and girls sector: thank you for your passion, resilience, and creativity. We can’t wait to see what we achieve together in 2026! A big thank you also goes to the National Lottery Community Fund for making all of this possible.