We took part in the Survivors’ Trust “Supporting Survivors Past Present & Future” conference on Monday 26th of September in Birmingham’s Aston University.

New Digital Marketing & Website Officer Guinéelle Mavuanga gave a brilliant and informative presentation of digital marketing campaigning which stimulated a great deal of interest and attention – with many requests for help afterwards! Some of the feedback was ‘excellent, well presented information’, ‘very informative, great ideas which I’ll take back to work with me’. Overall, this, too, was a well-constructed conference with many interesting speakers and presentations:

• a report from a Panel Member of IICSA and its workload,
• experience of the reluctance of the churches to acknowledge and deal with abuse,
• the benefits of working in a consortium,
• reporting on the survey of the healthcare needs of adult survivors of child sexual abuse and a fascinating talk by Dr Zoe Cameron, Chair of the Primary Care Children’s Safeguarding Forum on the clinical perspective of survivors of sexual assault and the potential impact on primary care.

We cannot let this somewhat dry report on the conference pass without mentioning a memorable and most moving interlude provided by Nesdi Jones, an upcoming singer/songwriter who was abused as a child, went to India and was abused again in her teens, took to drugs and alcohol and then pulled herself around and has concentrated on her art. She gave a spellbinding rendition of some haunting songs in Urdu, Hindi and English (she does them in Welsh as well!). We all came away feeling uplifted as well as so much better informed.

Here was the programme:

Time	Description – Speaker
9:00	Coffee and Registration
9.30	Welcome and introduction to day Fay Maxted MBE – CEO, The Survivors Trust
9.50	“Survivors” winner of Royal Television Award Joanne Butler, Director, ISAS
10.20	Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Ivor Frank, Barrister, Panel Member from IICSA
10.40	Experiences of Church Inquiries Lucy Duckworth & David Greenwood – Minister & Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors
11.00	Benefits and Challenges of Consortium Working Michelle Windle, Director, The Green House
11.30	Break
11.45	Morning Workshop
12.30	Lunch
13.20	Afternoon Workshop: Use of Social Media and Messaging Our very own Guinéelle Mavuanga
14.10	Nesdi Jones – singer/songwriter and Sexual Abuse Survivor
14.30	Reporting on the Survey of the Healthcare Needs of Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Elsa Montgomery, Lecturer/Head of Department of Midwifery & Lama Daher
15.00	Police Custodial Healthcare and Sexual Assault Referral Centres Andy Hunt, National Programme Manager, NHS
15.20	Clinical perspective; Survivors of sexual assault and the potential impact on primary care Dr Zoe Cameron, Chair of the Primary Care Children’s Safeguarding Forum
15.45	Closing Remarks
16.00	Close and Networking