We are delighted to share some fantastic news—our contract with the Police and Crime Commissioner, which was due to expire in March, has been renewed for at least another year. This renewal ensures that we can continue providing vital outreach therapy services in Bassetlaw, supporting those in need within the community. The funding also contributes to our SHE-roes Lounge and Peer group, supporting women from across the county – to build confidence, reduce isolation and create healthy connections.

This extension is a testament to the importance of the services we provide and the positive impact they have had in Bassetlaw and the wider county. It allows us to maintain continuity for our clients, ensuring they continue to receive support and empowerment to move forward on their healing journey.

“We are thrilled by this decision,” said Chief Executive Officer for S.H.E. UK, Lisa Lenton. “The renewal of this contract means we can carry on delivering essential therapy services to some of the most vulnerable and isolated members of our community. It’s a crucial step in ensuring no one is left without the help they need.”

Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Angela Kandola leads on the Violence Against Women and Girls agenda on behalf of Police and Crime Commissioner Gary Godden.

She said: “We are delighted to extend the contract with S.H.E. UK, which will allow them to continue providing invaluable support to survivors of sexual abuse and sexual violence in Bassetlaw.

“Supporting survivors is a fundamental pillar of our VAWG strategy in Nottinghamshire, and the service S.H.E. UK provides is helping deliver that aim and to make Nottinghamshire safer for all.”

We are grateful to the Police and Crime Commissioner for their continued belief in our work and the opportunity to serve the Bassetlaw community.

Help Us Expand Our Reach
While this contract renewal is wonderful news, the demand for our outreach therapy services continues to grow. With your support, we can extend these vital services even further. Donate today to help us make a bigger impact and bring hope to even more people in need.

https://localgiving.org/charity/she-uk

We look forward to continuing this vital work and sharing more updates in the months to come. Thank you for your ongoing support!

Pictured (L-R): Angela Kandola (Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner), Lisa Lenton (CEO, S.H.E. UK), Rachael Cumberland (Operations Manager, S.H.E. UK), Briony Verma (VAWG Commissioning Officer, OPCC for Nottinghamshire)

We’re incredibly proud to share that Lisa Lenton, CEO of S.H.E. UK, has been invited to speak at the two-day  ROSA Summer Conference taking place online next Tuesday, 17th and Wednesday, 18^th June 2025.

Presenting on Tuesday 17^th June, Lisa will be joining a panel of leaders and changemakers from across the UK to discuss the importance of specialist services supporting women and girls and some of the issues women and girls face.

Lisa will be talking alongside a number of powerful speakers, sharing her thoughts on the power of peer support within S.H.E. UK and the importance of raising the profile of childhood sexual abuse within our community.

Lisa’s inclusion in this national platform is not only a reflection of her leadership but also a recognition of the impact S.H.E. UK continues to have in the lives of survivors.

Stay tuned. We’ll be sharing highlights from the conference soon!

💙 To support our work and help us provide life-changing support to survivors, consider donating today: https://www.she-uk.org.uk/support-us/

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Mila Evanics and Corinna Del Debbio to the Board of Trustees at S.H.E. UK. Both Mila and Corinna bring a wealth of experience and passion for supporting survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sexual violence, further strengthening the strategic leadership of the organisation as we continue to grow and evolve.

Mila Evanics is a strategy analysis and impact expert with a strong background in supporting the charity sector through insights-driven decision-making. She has worked with leading organisations including FareShare, the Royal College of Nursing, The Challenge Network, and Pilotlight to enhance their effectiveness and reach. Mila currently serves as Head of Insight and Analytics at Greenpeace.

In 2022, Mila began studying counselling and psychotherapy, which deepened her understanding of therapeutic approaches. Mila shared her motivation for joining S.H.E. UK, “I was particularly drawn to S.H.E. UK’s vital mission of empowering survivors of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation, and I am passionate about the transformative role that long-form therapeutic practice plays in recovery and resilience.”

Outside of her professional work, Mila enjoys baking and tackling the challenges of her garden.

Corinna Del Debbio brings extensive experience in fundraising and corporate partnerships within the third sector. She has previously worked with impactful organisations such as Enough is Enough - a campaign running consent workshops across university campuses - and Our Streets Now, which tackles public sexual harassment. Corinna is currently a Corporate Partnerships Manager and joined S.H.E. UK as a trustee in January 2025 to strengthen the charity’s fundraising efforts and contribute her expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Corinna expressed her enthusiasm for the role, “I quickly became extremely passionate about S.H.E. UK’s work after learning about the charity through their engagement with Pilotlight. As a Trustee, I am excited to bring my fundraising and DEI experience to the organisation and help strengthen its capacity to support survivors.”

In her spare time, Corinna loves to be outdoors, whether running or hiking, or cooking good food at home.

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A Warm Welcome from the Chair of the Board

Reena Pastakia, Chair of the Board of Trustees at S.H.E. UK, welcomed the new appointments, “We are thrilled to welcome Mila and Corinna to the Board of Trustees. Their combined expertise in strategy, fundraising, and impact evaluation will bring immense value to S.H.E. UK. Both share a deep commitment to supporting survivors and driving meaningful change, and we are excited about the contributions they will make to the future of the charity.”

Mila and Corinna’s appointments mark an exciting step forward for S.H.E. UK as we continue to expand our services and strengthen our impact in supporting survivors on their healing journey.

💙 To support our work and help us provide life-changing support to survivors, consider donating today: https://www.she-uk.org.uk/support-us/

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that S.H.E. UK has been selected as a finalist for the Mansfield & Ashfield Business Network’s Charity of the Year award! This recognition is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and impact of our team, volunteers, and supporters, who make it possible for us to provide vital services to survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sexual violence.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been finalists. We have reached this stage before but didn’t take home the award. Could this be our year? 🤞

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Why This Matters

Being recognised by the Mansfield & Ashfield Business Network is an incredible opportunity to raise awareness of our work and the life-changing support we provide. Every day, we see the strength of survivors as they heal, grow, and reclaim their futures. This nomination shines a spotlight on the importance of specialist services like ours and the need for ongoing support in our community.

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What Happens Next?

The winner will be announced soon, and we’re keeping everything crossed! No matter the outcome, being named a finalist is an honour in itself, and we are so proud to stand alongside other amazing local charities making a difference.

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How You Can Support Us

As a small charity, we rely on the generosity of grants, fundraising, and donations to continue our essential work. It costs £250,000 a year to keep our services running, and every contribution helps us support more survivors on their healing journey.

💙 If you’d like to support us, you can donate here: https://localgiving.org/charity/she-uk 

A huge thank you to our team, clients, and supporters—this nomination is for all of us. We’ll keep you updated, and in the meantime, wish us luck! 🏆✨

We are delighted to announce that, thanks to funding from the ROSA Fund, we have successfully recruited a Therapist Co-ordinator to join our team! This new position marks an exciting milestone for our organisation, enhancing our ability to support both our trainee therapists and the wider community. The role will also assist the management team in reviewing the ‘client pathway’ to ensure we are working as efficiently and impactfully as we can.

The Therapist Co-ordinator will play a pivotal role in ensuring the smooth running of our therapy services. Their responsibilities include supporting the trainee therapist team, working closely with training providers to maintain a steady pipeline of talented trainees to build capacity within the organisation, and assisting with assessments to ensure high-quality service delivery.

“This is such an exciting step forward for us,” said Chief Executive Officer for S.H.E. UK, Lisa Lenton. “This opportunity to create this new role enables us to reflect on our service delivery model - to focus on delivering effective, empowering support while also creating opportunities for trainee therapists to thrive. We are deeply grateful to the ROSA Fund for making this possible.”

The role has already begun to make a positive impact by streamlining processes, improving support for trainees, and ensuring our organisation continues to grow and adapt to the needs of our community.

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Looking Ahead

We’re excited to see the difference this role will make as we move forward. If you’d like to support our work or learn more about the opportunities we offer, visit 💙 https://localgiving.org/charity/she-uk 

A heartfelt thank you to the ROSA Fund for their support of this transformative initiative and their commitment to helping organisations like ours grow and succeed.

By founder Jacqui Lewis

S.H.E. UK has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1998, when a small group of survivors came together with a shared goal, to support one another and create change. What started as "Survivors Helping Each Other" has since evolved into a professional, specialist organisation providing life-changing support to survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sexual violence.

Read more about the history of S.H.E. UK from our founder Jacqui Lewis, in her own words.

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The early days: A vision for change

The first time I deliberately set out to meet another person who had also been sexually abused as a child was in 1996; we were receiving our therapy from the same person and were both struggling with similar problems and feeling isolated. This may seem simplistic, but it was a keystone to the emergence of S.H.E., originally named ‘Survivors Helping Each Other’.

Initially, we researched what was specifically available to survivors besides therapy; in the process we were shocked to discover the number of people who had been victims; at the time, 1 in 4 of both men and women, and just how devastating and life impacting this could be. Stigma and shame kept them silent. If as children they had tried to tell, they were ignored or not believed.

The only kind of support available was counselling/ therapy once a week (if you were lucky enough to be offered this or knew where to get it) but, when you are in a constant state of crises there are other things you need; finding out you are not alone to name but one, which is where self-help comes in.

An introductory meeting of S.H.E. was held on August 8^th 1998 in Newark, facilitated by the Co-Ordinator of ISAS - Incest and Sexual Abuse Survivors; a charity offering therapy for sexual abuse survivors. Six women attended this meeting. The co-ordinator would become the point of contact by phone for the self-help group, but we would have to run it ourselves. We had no funds or experience in running a group, only a desire to change things for child victims today and get better help for adult survivors.

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Building support through creativity and community

Newark and Sherwood Council allowed us the use of a room for free for our weekly meetings; the venue was only disclosed to members who had been assessed, ground rules were set, including members must have already received at least six months’ worth of therapy. Meetings were held every Friday with a 50p donation from each person to cover tea and coffee.

The first Creative Therapy Group started on 5^th February 1999, as a twelve-week ‘taster’, the £1000 grant for the sessional therapist and materials being accessed through the Volunteer Bureau. This ‘taster’ was to become the launch pad for what would eventually become S.H.E. UK. The group was based on the work of Natalie Rogers, a distinguished psychotherapist and trained professional in Expressive Arts Therapy, and daughter of Carl Rogers.

By December of that year, Newark Town Hall was the venue for the First Survivor Art exhibition in the town, ‘The Closed Door’. One visitor's comment compared our artwork to that he had seen from the Holocaust survivors in the Netherlands. Our aim had been to raise awareness of child abuse by displaying its impact in art form, and hopefully towards prevention and for us to put aside fear and reclaim our voices.

Group members wanted the Creative Group to continue so everyone committed to running a tombola on a busy Saturday in December in the centre of Newark dressed in Christmas themed costumes, handing out S.H.E. leaflets along with the tickets; one member dressed as a sheep had a trail of small children trying to pull her tail. Fearful of the public exposure at first, but determined nonetheless, they raised £500 which paid the next term's therapist fees.

As a result of the exhibition and a one-day workshop by a singer/songwriter funded, through Newark and Sherwood Council, a poetry book - ‘The Closed Door and Beyond’ - was published with Millennium funds accessed through a National Mind grant. A copy of this went to libraries across Nottinghamshire.

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Growth, recognition and becoming a charity

Over the first eight years S.H.E. was lucky to access a brilliant variety of workshops free of charge, creating an ongoing calendar of events including art-based activities like silk painting, clay-work, stained glass, wood carving, photography, drumming, writing, dance and movement, yoga and tai chi provided by New Perspectives, Next Stage, Dance4, the Domestic Violence Forum and Newark and Sherwood strategic arts officers. These brought women together from all levels of society who had previously only had their abuse as a common denominator; they learnt what it might have been like to live with support and without fear. Women travelled long distances to become part of these workshops.

The most significant change for S.H.E. came in 2001 when it became a registered charity. We joined The Leagues of Hospital and Community Friends now known as ATTEND for the support they offered us running the charity and learning about the roles and responsibilities of trustees.

We moved into our first office on Northgate in Newark in June 2003 and employed our first paid worker to do office administration, up until that point everything was done by our members as volunteers operating from my home.

By 2010, we had a team of seven paid workers and the focus was more as a service provider than a self-help group. As the years have passed, the name changed reflecting the nature of the work being done ‘Supporting, Healing and Educating’, as the organisation evolved.

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A new era: Expanding our reach

In 2013, we appointed our first CEO - taking on the challenging role of stabilising and expanding the work of S.H.E. UK. We relocated the base to Mansfield in April of 2014.

Today, S.H.E. UK offers a range of specialist support services and has a dedicated team of highly trained professionals working both with clients and supporting the training of new therapists. It is a member of the BACP adhering to their standards and ethical framework.

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Looking ahead: 2025 and beyond

We are now in 2025, and our services are in demand more than ever. We have exciting challenges ahead of us, as we become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with a brand-new charity number but continue to offer the transformational support to help survivors on their healing journey.

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Your Support Can Make a Difference

As a small charity, we rely on grants, fundraising, and the generosity of our supporters to keep our services running. It costs £250,000 per year to provide specialist therapy, support groups, and outreach services to survivors. Every donation, no matter the size, helps us to continue our vital work.

If you believe in a world where survivors have access to the support they need, please consider making a donation. Your generosity can help someone take their first steps towards healing.

👉 Donate today: https://localgiving.org/charity/she-uk

Thank you for standing with us. 💙