Shaping the future for women and girls in Sunderland
Sunderland City Council, led by Cllr Allison Chisnell, brought together VCSE organisations, local councilors, and local authority departments to bring a much needed focus to the needs of women and girls in Sunderland and the role of Sunderland City Council to shape Sunderland to enable women and girls to thrive.
The event highlighted the work done so far, introduced the newly developed Women and Girls Position Statement, and provided thematic snapshots of the barriers women in Sunderland faced and the work being undertaken to remove them.
The Thematic topics and the lead:
- Digital Inclusion: Nicole McConnell
- Employment and Skills: Craig Hodgeson
- Civic Participation: Lindsay Dixon
- Community Safety: Stephen Laverton
- Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls: Julie Wearmouth
- Education and Attainment and Keeping Everyone Safe in Education: Kim Richardson
- Women’s Health: Nicola Appelby
- Inclusion Health: Sarah Norman
- Physical Activity: Andrea Baldwin
Each theme was explored through a gendered lens to understand how women and girls are specifically impacted and what the council can do to reduce and eradicate barriers and inequality.
Measures presented included:
Community Health Bus to bring resources to women who may otherwise struggle to access them. Co-producing VAWG and DV pathways. Educating the public about the voting system and how local and general elections work. Accessible sports programs to build on the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup opening match in Sunderland to engage women in sports and physical activity, and a task force to combat the recruitment of young boys by misogynist influencers.
Julie Wearmouth announced that the new Domestic Abuse and VAWG strategy, co-produced with local women, will be launched on May 22nd.
Round Table Discussions
The second part of the session featured round table discussions linking to the themes with notes taken back by the team.
At the close each attendee was encouraged to write a pledge, setting a clear intention on the things they as individuals or organisation can do to better serve the women and girls of Sunderland.
It was encouraging to see a gendered lens being meaningfully applied to generate open discussion on the needs of women in Sunderland and a clear will to make positive changes.