Wiltshire Community Foundation’s Inspire Confident Allyship Event

In a half-day event hosted by radio presenter James Threlfall MBE, attendees heard from some brilliant speakers, including Hetti Barkworth-Nanton - chair of Refuge (the largest domestic abuse organisation in the UK), Kate Rowland - the newly-appointed CEO of Swindon Domestic Abuse Support Service, Frank Mullane - the founder of AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse), Steve Collinson - head of the people team at Swindon-headquartered insurance firm Zurich, and Jeremy Blain - CEO of Swindon-based Performance Works International and co-founder of social enterprise DiversITy-talent.

120 businesspeople and leaders – on a roughly 50-50 male-female split – filled the Legends Bar at Swindon Town Football Club’s stadium to learn more about male allyship and how to actively advance the interests of marginalised groups.

While many women and girls enjoy a safe, fulfilled life in Wiltshire and Swindon, harassment, gender-based violence, workplace inequality, discrimination and stereotyping are still commonplace. Inspiring gender equality is a crucial step to tackling violence against women, with inequality often being identified as a root cause for abuse.

To prevent this, societal improvements must be made which includes ensuring equal pay, fair housing and welfare policies, and providing better employment, education, and training opportunities for women and girls.

Nationally, the figures relating to violence against women and girls (VAWG) are frightening and have been described as a ‘national emergency’ in a recent report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

The report identified that at least one in every 12 women will be a victim of VAWG every year and one in 20 adults in England and Wales will be a perpetrator of VAWG every year. Furthermore, one in six homicides in England and Wales are linked to domestic abuse, or 100 out of the 590 homicides in the year to March 2023.

What can men do to become better allies?

Here are some of the key take-aways from the event for businessmen about how to become better allies:

• Educate yourself. Domestic abuse is about so much more than domestic violence. White Ribbon UK and Refuge have some excellent resources
• Get some policies and workplace ambassadors in place
• Employ women in key roles
• Donate to / fundraise for charities supporting girls and women
• Start a conversation – whether that’s with your mates at the pub or at work
• Attend the next allyship event. We’re assured the inaugural event won’t be the last and everyone agreed it would be great to see more male bosses at the next one.

The Inspire Confident Allyship event was organised by Wiltshire Community Foundation and sponsored by Charlton Baker, which meant all ticket proceeds will go towards the Foundation’s Women and Girls Fund. We were extremely proud to support this important inaugural event.

Business Biscuit (news media) did a great job covering the event, and you can read their full post event write up here.