The innovative and challenging work taking place to make Devon, Cornwall and beyond a safer place for women and girls has been highlighted in this year’s West Country Women’s Awards.
For the fourth year, Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez has sponsored the Combating Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) award – one of 20 categories which celebrate the remarkable achievements and contributions of exceptional women across the region.
The finalists were announced during a recent afternoon tea at Powderham Castle, near Exeter, with special guests. This year saw the largest number ever of inspirational women nominated for the Combating VAWG award, each one having an incredible story of how their invaluable contributions are making such a positive difference to people’s lives.
The four finalists will join other nominees for a Grand Final Gala Dinner at Crowne Plaza Plymouth on November 28, where the winners will be announced.
Awards director Alexis Bowater OBE said: “We’ve heard thousands of stories of courage, innovation and compassion from women across the West Country, and every single one deserves recognition. Our finalists are extraordinary: each one making waves in her own field, and together they show just how strong, creative and innovative our region is.”
Commissioner Hernandez added: “Congratulations to the inspiring finalists not just in our category but across all the categories. It was extremely difficult choosing our four finalists because the calibre of nominees was so high this year.
“It is reassuring to hear how many incredible women are going above and beyond to tackle VAWG which is one of my key priorities. No woman should have to live their lives in fear of becoming a victim. I look forward to presenting the Combating Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) at the finale next month.”
The four Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner finalists are:
For nearly 30 years, Sue has worked in the VAWG sector. Inspired to help others after being the victim of an abusive partner, she worked in mainstream psychiatry with individuals who had experienced psychological trauma. Disheartened after witnessing how women who were “pathologised” and, in many cases, “blamed” for the trauma they had experienced, she left the NHS.
In 2016, she created Rock Pool which delivers a range of trauma informed training and consultation work, building on the foundations started by Sue Penna Associates in 2005. Based in Brixham, Rock Pool now delivers training across the UK with the aim of supporting and empowering individuals to lead independent lives.
In the past three years, Rock Pool has delivered 244 recovery toolkit courses, attended by 3,325 practitioners, and 344 trauma informed training events to 4,255 participants. Course attendees have come from 1,833 organisations.
Sue’s VAWG achievements also include being one of the first people to challenge medical diagnoses, such as borderline personality disorder, that medicalised and labelled women who were showing trauma responses; creating the Domestic Abuse Recovery Toolkit, the first trauma informed program addressing coercion and control. In 2024 she formed a women’s theatre collective, raising money and awareness of VAWG through productions of the Vagina Monologues.
Sue, a trustee of West Cornwall Women’s Aid, said: “I’m still fighting because there has just not been enough change in 30 years, and the same number of women and children are being murdered every year.
“I think I may have been nominated for the award due to my persistence and the recognition that I have spent over half my life championing women’s rights to be free from domestic abuse, free from the stigma that follows them once they escape, free from the shame they can be made to feel and free to have the lives they deserve.
This has been my life’s work so far and I imagine it will continue to be.”
For the past 28 years, Rebecca has worked for Teignbridge District Council. Her vital role is centred on working with the police and other partners to make the community safer and creating positive changes in peoples’ lives.
Within the field of VAWG, Rebecca has achieved many great things. She helped secure more than £300,000 of funding to deliver projects through voluntary sector partners Space and Young Devon to keep young people safe in the heart of communities and challenge the culture of misogyny.
It resulted in more than 225 young people giving their views on how to make their communities safer and has seen the development of a project that will be piloted in the last year of primary school to boys in three schools.
Rebecca led the Let’s Talk programme – designed to empower parents and carers by raising awareness of the community safety risks and challenges faced by young people while providing simple tips to support them. Almost 9,000 engagements with the project.
A pilot project utilising Community Protection Warnings across the CSP area was also led by Rebecca to disrupt negative impacts on the quality of life of local residents. More than 500 have been issued across the CSP for a wide variety of reasons, including stalking behaviour to up skirting, with a compliance rate of more than 90 per cent.
Rebecca said: “I have led work on tackling gangs and the impact of the young women within these, informing parents about safeguarding risks and addressing behaviours of our young people to create a long-term cultural change.
“My passion is that we need to bring together the whole community to work at the earliest possible opportunity to create lasting change and stop women and girls being harmed.”
Committed to addressing the root causes of gender-based violence through early, evidence-informed intervention in schools, Lucy has developed and delivered a specialist intervention programme called Is This Okay? over the past three years. It aims to directly address harmful sexual behaviour among young people and help them access appropriate support.
The six-week programme has already reached more than 297 young people aged 13 to 19-years-old across secondary schools in Devon. She has secured funding and is currently delivering the programme in 19 more secondary schools across Devon, with the potential to reach up to 380 additional young people.
In partnership with young women in Teignbridge, Lucy facilitated the collection of powerful lived experiences about the harassment, assault, and everyday behaviours – such as catcalling and being followed – that make them feel unsafe.
This evidence was presented to Teignbridge Council, resulting in tangible improvements to public spaces, including redesigns of public toilets, to make them safer and more welcoming. She then brought the stories directly to local pubs, clubs, and their door staff to create safer, more respectful environments for young women across both public and private spaces.
Space Youth Services is a not-for-profit organisation committed to empowering young people across Devon to realise their full potential.
Lucy, who has more than 15 years of experience working with young people, said: “I am committed to addressing the root causes of gender-based violence through early, evidence-informed intervention.
“I’ve seen first-hand how young people can grow when they are given the right tools and guidance and how important it is to intervene before patterns become entrenched. It is important to shine a light on the importance of early, education-based approaches in the fight against violence towards women and girls.”
A VAWG survivor, Mel decided to focus her life’s work on combatting it six years ago. She spends her free time researching VAWG, particularly the areas that need the most work within the city, delivering voluntary talks to more than 2,000 young people across the South West on topics of sexism and abuse, and is completing a Master’s degree in Social Policy (VAWG) – all while living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME).
Alongside working for Trevi, the South West’s leading women’s charity, and now the Plymouth Domestic Abuse Service, Mel’s efforts in combatting VAWG have been heavily voluntarily, including her Plymouth VAWG Gala, where she raised £10,000 for First Light and Trevi, a multitude of women’s rights protests in Plymouth in recent years reaching hundreds of survivors, and most notably her revival of Plymouth’s Reclaim the Night march in 2024 after a seven-year hiatus. This year, the number of participants doubled to more than 500 marchers.
She is also renowned for public speaking on VAWG and advocating for women’s rights across multiple demographics.
Mel said: “Living with a debilitating disability was never going to be easy, but it drives me to accomplish far more than I likely would have without it because I’m acutely aware of how precious my time is to dedicate to this cause. This issue will only end if we all fight it together”.