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Our Next Event: Before and Beyond
One year into the Government’s 10-year strategy to halve men’s violence against women and girls, Own My Life is bringing together leading voices from the women’s sector, creative practitioners and campaigners to reflect on progress, challenge existing approaches and imagine what meaningful change could look like.
What does it really take to respond to men’s violence against women and girls? And one year into the Government’s 10-year strategy to halve it, are we asking the right questions?
These are some of the questions at the heart of Before and Beyond: Reviewing Year 1 of the UK’s VAWG Strategy, an upcoming online event hosted by Own My Life on Monday 14th December, 1pm - 3pm. Bringing together specialist knowledge, creative thinking and many decades of experience supporting women, the event will offer an opportunity to take stock of the first year of the Government’s strategy and consider what needs to happen next.
Rather than simply measuring progress against policy commitments, the event will invite participants to think critically about the approaches currently being used to tackle male violence, and to explore what a future in which women and girls can truly flourish might look like.
Looking Before and Beyond
The event brings together Davina James-Hanman and Yasmin Rehman, co-authors of the Before and Beyond report, published three months after the launch of the Government’s VAWG strategy.
The report challenges established approaches to tackling violence against women and girls, raising important questions about what we mean by prevention, the dominance of criminal justice responses and the limitations of risk-based models.
It asks us to look beyond the systems and interventions that have come to dominate responses to violence, and to consider what meaningful prevention would require. How can we move beyond reacting to violence once it has happened? What would it take to address the wider conditions that enable violence to continue? And how can we ensure that the needs, experiences and flourishing of women and girls remain at the centre of our work?
A year into the Government’s strategy, these questions feel particularly urgent. The event will create space to revisit the report’s ideas, reflect on what has happened since its publication and consider how its challenges and recommendations can inform the next nine years of the strategy.
Read the Before and Beyond report here.
Putting girls and young women at the heart of change
Joining Davina and Yasmin will be Clara Shield from the Young Women’s Film Academy, bringing the perspectives of girls and young women into the conversation.
As a filmmaker and creative practitioner, Clara will invite participants to think creatively about the future of work to address men's violence towards women and girls. Her contribution will encourage us to move beyond familiar ways of thinking and to ensure that girls and young women are at the heart of our work.
Creative approaches can open up new possibilities for understanding, connection and change. By bringing the voices and experiences of younger generations into the discussion, Clara will help participants consider how we can build a future in which girls and young women are heard, valued and fully considered in the work we do
Making space for women's flourishing
Also contributing to the event is Jacky Mulveen, whose decades of experience supporting women to live their best lives bring a different but equally vital perspective to the conversation.
Working with women in Birmingham and beyond, Jacky brings joy, positivity, hope and delight to her work. Her contribution will create space for participants to move their bodies, reconnect with a sense of hope and positivity, and remember why this work matters.
At a time when conversations about men's violence can be dominated by harm, trauma and the systems that fail women, Jacky's approach offers an important reminder: addressing violence is not only about preventing harm. It is also about creating the conditions in which women can thrive.
Women's flourishing must be at the heart of everything we do. Making space for joy, possibility and connection is not a distraction from the serious work of change; it is part of imagining and building the world we want women and girls to live in.
A space for reflection, creativity and hope
The event will be hosted by Natalie Collins of Own My Life, who will bring joy and reflexivity to the session, creating space for participants to question assumptions, share perspectives and think together about what needs to happen next.
By bringing together policy critique, women's experiences, creative practice and a focus on women's flourishing, Before and Beyond aims to offer something different from a conventional policy discussion. It is an invitation to reflect honestly on where we are, to remain curious about what might be possible, and to hold on to hope as we work towards change.
The ambition to halve men's violence against women and girls over the next decade is something we have questioned HERE. And achieving any meaningful change will require more than good intentions and existing approaches. It will require imagination, sustained commitment and a willingness to ask difficult questions about what works, what does not, and what we need to do differently.
One year in, this is an opportunity to pause, reflect and look both before and beyond.
Join us
The event is free to attend, with the option to purchase a ticket to support Own My Life's work.
Date: Monday 14th December 2026
Time: 1pm - 3pm
Location: Online, via Zoom.
Cost: Free, with an optional paid ticket to support Own My Life.
Whether you are working to respond to the harm men cause women and girls, are involved in supporting women and girls, or simply want to be part of a conversation about how we create meaningful change, we warmly invite you to join us.
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