Gudrun Burnet
CEO, Standing Together
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COVID-19: Advice and resources for housing providers
Our founders
Kelly Henderson
Business Manager (Domestic Abuse), Gentoo
Nicole Jacobs
Designate Commissioner for Domestic Abuse, Home Office
Meghan Field
Director of Business Development & Insights, Advance
Gudrun Burnet
Before joining Standing Together as CEO, Guddy worked at Peabody Housing Association for nearly 11 years, first as Community Safety Manager, then as a Senior Business Partner for Domestic Abuse.
Guddy has trained over 43 Housing Providers nationally and is the housing representative for the National Violence Against Women’s and Girls stakeholder panel hosted by the Home Office.
She has spoken at International conferences in Czechoslovakia, Brighton, Belfast, Taiwan and the Hague about her work in housing and domestic abuse. She is a trustee of AVA and a 2016 Winston Churchill Fellow and was shortlisted for Red Magazine's Pioneering Woman of the year Award 2016.
Kelly Henderson
Kelly's interest in domestic abuse started over 25 years ago as part of her university placement at a women’s refuge, her final year dissertation analysed gender differences in charging and sentencing of domestic abuse homicides.
Kelly's housing experience includes roles in housing management, asylum, policy and research. She is a board member of Women in Social Housing North East and has a Masters in Housing Management and Policy. Prior to her current role at Gentoo as Business Manager – Domestic Abuse, Kelly was the Domestic and Sexual Violence Lead for a local authority, co-ordinating the city’s Multi Agency Domestic Abuse Partnership. She has recently completed her PhD (Durham University) on the role of housing in a co-ordinated community response to domestic abuse.
Kelly was named 24 Housing's ‘Housing Professional of the Year’ 2018.
Nicole Jacobs
Nicole became the UK's first Designate Commissioner for Domestic Abuse in 2019, ending her 5 year term as CEO of Standing Together.
In 1997, she came to London and helped set up ADVANCE, one of the first IDVA services in the UK.
In 2000, she began working at Standing Together to expand the CCR approach into health settings. After returning to the UK following two years at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, she worked for SafeLives, Refuge and her own freelance business before returning to Standing Together.
Meghan Field
Meghan is a certified IDVA and managed a frontline service in West London before becoming the Domestic and Sexual Violence Services Coordinator for Kensington & Chelsea. Meghan then worked for Standing Together where she was the Housing Services Coordinator, chaired DHRs and published Turning Points, which examines the impact of a coordinated community response on survivors of domestic abuse. During this time, Meghan co-founded the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance.
From 2013-2015, Meghan worked for Kensington &Chelsea Council as the European Communities Against Trafficking (ECAT) Project Manager and the Tri-Borough VAWG Transformation Lead. From 2015-2017, she was the Tri-Borough VAWG Strategic Lead, where she acted as lead commissioner, strategist and partnership director.
Currently, Meghan is an independent collaboration consultant, working with a number of strategic partnerships, local authorities and charitable consortiums to improve their approach to ending violence against women and girls via a Coordinated Community Response. Meghan has BAs in Spanish and Philosophy and an MA in Gender and Cultural Studies.
Our team
Rebecca Vagi
Team Manager
Sharon Crosby
Cambridgeshire Development Manager
Saranya Kogulathas
London Development Manager
Judith Vickress
National Development Manager
Vickie Crompton
Whole Housing Cambridgeshire Programme Manager
Freya Routledge
DAHA Events & Project Officer
Elizabeth Jones
Whole Housing Approach Coordinator
Rebecca Vagi
Rebecca is the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) Team Manager at Standing Together Against Domestic Violence and has worked in the field of domestic violence for the past 10 years. Her experience includes delivering and managing frontline services for women and children, coordinating a local community response to domestic abuse in health and housing settings and working with organisations to develop in-house interventions that enhances how they deliver services to survivors and children.
In previous roles, Rebecca was the Development Manager at Women’s Aid Federation of England working on the Change that Lasts project, a needs-led and whole community response to domestic abuse that is being piloted across the country. She has also worked with the South East Coast Ambulance Service to set up a domestic abuse pilot, the first of its kind at an ambulance service in England, which introduced screening tools, trained champions and referral pathways to local services. Rebecca is also a guest lecturer at Goldsmith’s University for their MA Understanding Domestic Violence & Sexual Abuse course.
Sharon Crosby
Sharon has supported high risk survivors of domestic abuse since 2005 gaining experience with two local authorities. Initially working as an accredited Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA), she has for the last 4 years worked as a Senior IDVA supervising staff within the domestic violence team located within the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub in Cambridgeshire.
Sharon has experienced the benefits of partnership working including daily Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences in safeguarding adults and children at risk of abuse.
Sharon is passionate about protecting vulnerable people and is a core member of her local Hope for Justice abolition group, raising awareness in the community about modern day slavery.
Saranya Kogulathas
Saranya is the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) London Development Manager at Standing Together Against Domestic Violence. Saranya works with housing providers across London to effectively implement DAHA accreditation.
Saranya has a background in social housing policy and worked in the policy team at the National Housing Federation (NHF), focusing on homelessness, supported housing and welfare policy. Saranya led the NHF’s work on the Housing Association Commitment to Refer, which looks at how housing associations can effectively work with local authorities to prevent homelessness. Saranya also brings parliamentary experience through her role as a Parliamentary Assistant to Dan Jarvis MP. During this role she worked on various constituency campaigns and provided support on daily parliamentary business.
Judith Vickress
Judith brings to DAHA over 25 years’ experience first in the legal field and then in the domestic abuse sector.
After practicing as a family lawyer for eight years Judith found a passion and inspiration in working with survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. She moved to work for Women’s Aid in refuge, outreach & as an IDVA and then for Rape Crisis as an ISVA.
Judith was part of the strategic team that developed and implemented the first IDVA, MARAC and SDVC in her local area.
For the last 6 ½ years Judith has worked with SafeLives, initially on the MARAC Development Programme and Young People’s Programme, more recently in the Knowledge Hub developing & sharing her expertise in risk management, multi-agency collaborative working, safeguarding and information sharing.
Judith has a BSc (Hons) degree in Urban Estate Management and focussed on Homelessness for her final year thesis, so is delighted to be combining her interests, passion and experience to support the housing sector to improve its response to domestic abuse.
Vickie Crompton
Prior to work on the Whole Housing Project, Vickie was responsible for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Partnership for almost 10 years. In the time, Vickie commissioned both specialist refuge and outreach services, and was responsible for the IDVA service and the MARAC provision for the area. Vickie is a MARAC Chair and set up the local Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Panel.
Over the years Vickie has trained a wide range of services in domestic abuse matters and worked with service providers to improve their response to domestic abuse.
Vickie sits on the panel for Domestic Homicide Reviews in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, as well as providing input for the Home Office on the Quality Assurance Domestic Homicide Review Panel.
As well as speaking at events in the UK, Vickie presented Whole Housing at the 3rd European Conference on Domestic Violence in Oslo this year
Freya Routledge
Freya has been the DAHA Events & Project Officer at Standing Together since July 2019. She works primarily on DAHA accreditation, streamlining operations and developing new resources to ensure the process runs smoothly.
Prior to joining Standing Together, Freya worked in marketing in Leeds for 3 years, managing design and artwork projects across a range of client accounts. The decision to move into the charity sector was the result of volunteering at a local soup kitchen and developing relationships with the service-users which sparked an interest in housing and homelessness.
During this time Freya also co-ran Slut Drop, a Leeds-based music collective that addressed the gender imbalance in electronic music by supporting female, non-binary, BAME & LGBTQI+ creatives through workshops and DIY club nights.
Elizabeth Jones
Elizabeth began working with Standing Together in October 2019, and joins the Whole Housing Team after working on Pathfinder, a national health project aimed at improving health responses to domestic abuse using a 'Whole Health' approach. She started her role as Whole Housing Approach Coordinator in April 2020.
In the 6 years prior to joining Standing Together, Elizabeth directly supported survivors in her capacity as a helpline volunteer, refuge worker and Independent Domestic Violence Advisor, with safety and social welfare issues, including various private rented, social housing and supported accommodation concerns. She also worked at Citizen's Advice, assisting the in-house solicitor and supporting clients through eviction hearings.
Elizabeth has a keen interest in legal and justice issues and holds a Graduate Diploma in Law, and a Masters degree in Medical Ethics and Law with International Law.
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