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Underexamined and Underreported
Agenda Alliance's briefing on the links between intimate partner violence, suicidality (suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts), and self-harm.
13 Dec 2023
From our projects going from strength to strength, to new recruits joining the team, and work to strengthen our membership, Agenda Alliance has had a busy and fruitful year.
As 2023 draws to a close, we look back on everything we’ve achieved.
2023 marked the start of our bold and ambitious 5-year strategy, outlining how we intend to campaign for change so all women and girls can thrive. This strategic road map sets out our commitments to create lasting change for women and girls with unmet needs: getting government to prioritize their mental health; evidence the racism they experience in public services; reduce young women’s exclusions from school; and, as always, embedding and amplifying their voices and lived experience. You can read it here.
Rooted in our values of intersectionality and collaboration, and our goal to convene a strong, cohesive, and empowered alliance, we kickstarted our alliance development work with a survey of our membership.
This received a hugely positive response, and we want to thank all our members who took the time to engage and contribute their thoughts. We are developing a plan to embed this feedback over the next year, and are looking forward to offering more opportunities for all our members to be involved in shaping our work together.
The year hasn’t been without challenge – in October 2022, our incredible CEO, Indy, was diagnosed with breast cancer. To support her as she took time off to focus on her treatment and recovery, our Deputy CEO, Jess, stepped up and held the reigns for the first half of the year. We’re so happy to say Indy has been back with us since June, and is an inspiration in leading us with energy, enthusiasm and commitment. To support others in her position and raise awareness, she recently wrote about her experience for Third Sector.
Our team has also welcomed new additions, as Teddy, Maisie, and Nina joined Agenda’s staff this year, and five new trustees joined our Board. We’re also partway through recruiting for a new Chair of Trustees, and will announce who has taken up the post in the New Year.
We’re also incredibly proud to have welcomed Daddyless Daughters and the National Women’s Justice Coalition as alliance members this year.
We began 2023 with an extension to our Young Women’s Justice Project, thanks to funding from Lloyds Bank Foundation. We’re proud to have made clear impact with this work, working alongside others to achieve a commitment from the Ministry of Justice to develop a Young Adult Women’s Strategy, and we continue to work towards this being meaningfully co-produced with girls and young women. We ended the year publishing our briefing, A Call to Action, which sets out clear, actionable, recommendations for government, the criminal justice system, and service providers.
Alongside A Call to Action, this year we:
We couldn't do the work we do without the vital backing from our funders. Thank you to our long-standing funders, whose continued partnership is helping to create meaningful change; and thank you to our new funders for backing our vision, including the John Ellerman Foundation and AB Charitable Trust, who we welcomed this year.
We are grateful to everyone who supports our work, whether that’s through donating, receiving our newsletter, or sharing our updates on social media. You all are a crucial part of our movement, campaigning for change so all women and girls can thrive.
Agenda Alliance's briefing on the links between intimate partner violence, suicidality (suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts), and self-harm.
A new briefing paper published today by Agenda Alliance and Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) reveals the severe mental health problems facing young women in our prisons.
In the first of a series of blogs highlighting the recommendations from our final Transforming Services report, the women researchers we worked with share their experiences of being let down by services and the case for change.