East Midlands Partnership On violence against WomEn and giRls (EMPOWER)

在我们的社会中，妇女和女孩所遭受的具体犯罪比例过高，包括强奸、家庭暴力和杀人等犯罪。我们需要有效、具体和有针对性的解决方案来解决针对妇女和女童的暴力行为。解决办法应认识到，这些罪行是复杂的，涉及交叉和重叠的问题，无法由单一机构（如警察）有效解决。莱斯特大学认识到，作为一所公民大学，它有责任支持当地社区，帮助开发这些解决方案。东米德兰兹暴力侵害妇女和女童问题伙伴关系（赋权）将通过汇集刑事司法、卫生/法医、地方当局、第三部门/自愿机构和暴力侵害妇女和女童问题幸存者等机构来实现这一目标，制定一项研究战略，确定和分析解决暴力侵害妇女和女童问题在东米德兰兹地区所需的关键工作支柱。该项目的一个关键理念是强调所有参与合作伙伴的共同设计和共同生产。这意味着在实践中，合作伙伴共同努力，在莱斯特大学学者的专业知识的支持下，确定影响他们实践的主要挑战、问题和问题。这为合作伙伴关系产生了共同的愿景，共同制定应对这些挑战的战略，而不是从一个来源（例如学术界）获得特权。因此，该项目的成果将以现实世界的问题为基础，并与那些致力于解决VAWG的机构相关，无论是在区域还是在全国范围内。合作伙伴关系的工作将在9个月的时间内交付。通过将主要警务和多机构合作伙伴聚集在一起的一系列五个主题讲习班，将通过发现和共同创造的方法确定与一系列主题（如性暴力、家庭暴力、贩运人口）相关的核心领域。在每个研讨会之后，一个主题研究活动的阶段，通过嵌入式研究员和研究生实习来实施，将为这些核心领域提供初步答案，并解开研讨会中发现的任何问题。这些阶段的产出将包括从这项试点/范围界定工作中得出的结论的简短证据简报。在专题讲习班和随后的主题研究活动阶段结束后，该项目将进入综合阶段，其目标是汇集和提炼从这些活动中获得的经验。与合作伙伴的综合研讨会将把这项工作重点放在发展项目的两个关键产出上：(i)共同制定的研究战略，确定解决东米德兰兹地区VAWG所需的关键优先事项；（ii）一个可持续发展计划，概述一套详细的活动和研究应用计划，以实现未来的资助，以实现这一研究战略。EMPOWER和它将产生的产出是一个重要的机会，可以为东米德兰兹地区有效干预妇女自愿行动制定一项有组织和有针对性的计划，并有机会为全国的实践提供信息。我们知道，遭受暴力会对妇女和女童造成毁灭性的影响，对她们的家庭、社区和更广泛的社会产生连锁反应。据估计，仅家庭暴力每年造成的经济和社会成本就超过660亿英镑（Oliver at al., 2019）。EMPOWER代表了充满激情和承诺的学者，从业者和幸存者的伙伴关系，他们最终致力于减少我们社会中VAWG的发生，并随后改善妇女和女孩的生活。

Specific crimes that occur in our society are experienced disproportionately by women and girls, including crimes such as rape, domestic violence and homicide. We need effective, specific, and targeted solutions to address this violence against women and girls (VAWG). Solutions should recognise that these crimes are complex and involve intersecting and overlapping issues that cannot be effectively addressed by a single agency e.g., the police. The University of Leicester recognises its responsibility as a civic university to support its local communities to aid in the development of these solutions. The East Midlands Partnership On violence against WomEn and giRls (EMPOWER) will achieve this by drawing together agencies spanning criminal justice, health/forensic, local authorities, third sector/voluntary and survivors of VAWG, to develop a research strategy that will identify and unpick the key pillars of work needed to address VAWG in the East Midlands region. A key ethos to the project is the emphasis on co-design and co-production by all involved partners. What this means in practice, is that partners work together to identify the main challenges, questions and issues that affect their practice, supported by the expertise of academics from the University of Leicester. This engenders a shared vision for the partnership in working together to develop strategies that address these challenges, rather than privileging a view from one source (e.g., academia). Therefore, the outcomes from this project will be grounded in real world issues and relevant to those agencies that work to tackle VAWG, both regionally and more nationally.The work of the partnership will be delivered across a 9-month time period. Through a series of five themed workshops that will bring together key policing and multi-agency partners, core area(s) relevant to a range of topics (e.g., sexual violence, domestic violence, human trafficking) will be identified through discovery and co-creation methods. Following each workshop, a phase of Themed research activity, actioned through embedded researcher placements and postgraduate placements will provide preliminary answers to these core area(s) and unpack any issues that were identified from the workshop. Outputs from these phases will include short evidence briefings of findings drawn from this piloting/scoping work. At the conclusion of the thematic workshops and the subsequent Themed research activity phases, the project will move into a synthesis phase where the objective is to draw together and distil the learnings gained from these activities. A synthesis workshop with the partners will focus this work into developing two key outputs from the project: (i) a co-created research strategy that identifies the key priorities required to address VAWG in the East Midlands and (ii) a sustainability plan that outlines a detailed set of activities and research application plans for achieving future funding to deliver this research strategy. EMPOWER and the outputs it will produce are a critical opportunity to develop a structured and targeted plan for effectively intervening in VAWG in the East Midlands region, with opportunities to inform practice nationally. We know that experiencing violence has devastating impacts on women and girls, with ripple effects across their families, communities, and broader society. Domestic violence alone is estimated to have economic and social costs that exceed £66 billion each year (Oliver at al., 2019). EMPOWER represents a partnership of passionate and committed academics, practitioners, and survivors, who are ultimately dedicated to reducing the occurrence of VAWG in our society, and subsequently improving the lives of women and girls.