‘Economic abuse’ with Dr Nicola Sharp-Jeffs and ‘Lived Experience in the Sector’ with Lisa Ward

Earlier this year, The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations hosted two webinars as part of the Women and Girls Initiative Learning and Impact Services. Both webinars are available to watch via the Institute’s YouTube channel.  Open to all WGI projects, funders and commissioners of women and girls services, researchers and others involved in the field of specialist services for women and girls, both webinars attracted over 150 attendees.

The first webinar on ‘Economic Abuse, it’s policy and practice implications’ took place on 30 March 2022 and was led by Dr Nicola Sharp-Jeffs OBE, Founder and CEO of Surviving Economic Abuse. Dr Sharp-Jeffs talked about the relatively unknown and misunderstood issue of Economic Abuse which is much broader than ‘Financial Abuse’.  In ‘Economic Abuse, its policy and practice implications,’ Dr Sharp-Jeffs spoke about the definition of economic abuse within the Westminster Government’s Domestic Abuse Act (2021), building an understanding of the ‘technology’ or variety of means via which economic abuse is perpetrated, including constructs and targets of control. The webinar shares examples and insights on Economic Abuse, behaviours and the long-lasting impact on victims and survivors.

The second webinar, which took place on 5 April 2022, was on ‘Lived Experience in the sector: How do we better enable a ‘We’?, and was led by Lisa Ward, an Activist, lived Experience Consultant, Public Speaker, and Researcher.  Lisa drew on Liz Kelly’s question of ‘Have we  lost the we’ in the VAWG sector? Exploring research undertaken with the Rape Crisis network, Lisa charted the changing social and political landscapes of the past 40 years and also drawing on her own lived experience analysed their impact on service structures and delivery.  The webinar shared some interesting learning and recommendations from research undertaken with the Rape Crisis network.

The webinar recordings are some of the final public outputs from the WGI Learning and Impact Services and are available alongside previous reports, briefings and the new WGI animation film “Where she was to where she is now: Celebrating the Women and Girls Initiative” made by Leeds Animation Workshop with WGI projects.  These resources will continue to be available as part of the legacy from the WGI.

The Women and Girls Initiative is made possible by The National Lottery Community Fund. It is supporting 62 projects with funds raised from The National Lottery. For more information about the WGI, see the project page.

The WGI Learning and Impact Services is being delivered on behalf of The Fund by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR), DMSS Research (DMSS) and the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) – the partners. The partners are delivering a programme of support to projects with the aim of capturing and sharing learning and creating a stronger community of services that has greater influence on decision-making structures across the country.

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