Introducing Rowan Jackson-Smith to the IRISi Board of Directors!

With vast financial knowledge and expertise in the not for profit sector, Rowan joins IRISi to enhance our financial practices and drive strategic growth.

We’re excited to introduce Rowan Jackson-Smith, the newest member of the IRISi Board of Directors. Rowan’s journey reflects his rich background and unwavering commitment to driving positive change. With over a decade of experience spanning investment banking, financial auditing and commercial consulting, he brings a wealth of financial acumen and strategic insight to our board.

His recent role as Manager in Commercial Finance at The Crown Estate has equipped him with invaluable skills in financial management and strategic planning. Coupled with his extensive experience in various charitable roles, including serving as a Charity Trustee for both Fusion UK and Shift Nation, Rowan brings a deep understanding of governance and fiduciary responsibility to the IRISi Board.

His journey with IRISi began through a chance encounter with our Chair. “I met Daphne Amevenu, IRISi Chair, during a dinner, where she mentioned IRISi was seeking financial support and guidance”, Rowan shared. Intrigued, he researched IRISi’s mission, finding it resonated deeply with his commitment to tackling gender-based violence and promoting social justice. Drawing from his extensive work in supporting male mental health and well-being initiatives, Rowan recognises the pivotal role of addressing gender dynamics in fostering healthier communities for all genders.

Motivated by his financial expertise and a passion for social change, Rowan envisions leveraging his skills to enhance IRISi’s financial practices and drive strategic growth. “I’m committed to ensuring IRISi’s impact is sustainable and far-reaching”, Rowan remarked. His focus on diversifying revenue streams and fostering collaboration underscores his dedication to long-term success.

Looking ahead, Rowan is eager to collaborate with fellow board members to tackle the challenges facing IRISi and its network: “I’m confident in our collective ability to overcome obstacles and effect positive change”.

As we welcome Rowan to the IRISi team and community, we’re inspired by his passion and dedication. His unique blend of professional experience and commitment to social change makes him a valuable addition to our board. Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Rowan Jackson-Smith as we work together to create a world free from gender-based violence.

Partners

AVA

AVA is an expert, groundbreaking and independent charity working across the UK.

Their vision is a world without gender based violence and abuse. They aim to inspire innovation and collaboration and encourage and enable direct service providers to help end gender based violence and abuse particularly against women and girls.AVA’s work is focused around those areas where they can make the best contribution to ending violence and abuse. They do this by making sure that survivors get the help and support they need in the here and now, through providing innovative training that has a proven direct impact on the professional practice of people supporting survivors of violence and abuse

developing a range of toolkits, e-learning and other material that supports professionals to provide effective and appropriate support to survivors of violence and abuse

using our influence and networks to ensure survivors voices are heard. We work closely with AVA in many areas including the Pathfinder project

https://avaproject.org.uk

SafeLives

SafeLives are a national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for good. We combine insight from services, survivors and statistics to support people to become safe, well and rebuild their lives. Since 2005, SafeLives has worked with organisations across the country to transform the response to domestic abuse, with over 60,000 victims at highest risk of murder or serious harm now receiving co-ordinated support annually. SafeLives are members of the Pathfinder consortium.

About us

IMKAAN

Imkaan is a UK-based, Black feminist organisation. We are the only national second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women and girls i.e. women and girls which are defined in policy terms as Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ (BME). The organisation holds nearly two decades of experience of working around issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence.

They work at local, national and international level, and in partnership with a range of organisations, to improve policy and practice responses to Black and minoritised women and girls. Imkaan works with it’s members to represent the expertise and perspectives of frontline, specialist and dedicated Black and minoritised women’s organisations that work to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Imkaan delivers a unique package of support which includes: quality assurance; accredited training and peer education; sustainability support to frontline Black and minoritised organisations; and facilitation of space for community engagement and development. They are a part of the Pathfinder Consortium.

https://www.imkaan.org.uk

The University of Bristol CAPC

The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. It is part of Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching.

A dedicated team of researchers at the Centre work on domestic abuse projects and IRISi is a co-collaborator and partner on some of these projects including ReProvide, HERA and DRiDVA.

The Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The Health Foundation’s Exploring Social Franchising programme aims to generate a deeper understanding of the potential of social franchising models for scaling effective health and social care interventions within the NHS.

We are one of four project teams participating in the programme to develop a social franchise to enable the sustainable spread of our intervention, the IRIS Programme. We receive funding and support from the Health Foundation, including technical expertise on social franchising, and attend programme learning events. The Health Foundation has also commissioned a programme-wide evaluation to support understanding of the use of social franchising in the UK health and care system. We and our franchisees will support the evaluation through co-designing data collection requirements, providing access to data as requested, hosting site visits and attending learning events.

https://www.health.org.uk

STADV

Standing Together Against Domestic Violence is a UK charity bringing communities together to end domestic abuse. They bring local services together to keep people safe

Most public services weren’t designed with domestic abuse in mind, and they often struggle to keep people safe. Poor communication and gaps between services put survivors at risk.

STADV aim to end domestic abuse by changing the way that local services respond to it. They do this through an approach that they pioneered, called the Coordinated Community Response. The Coordinated Community Response brings services together to ensure local systems truly keep survivors safe, hold abusers to account, and prevent domestic abuse.

Their model of a coordinated local partnership to tackle and ultimately prevent domestic violence is now widely accepted as best practice. They are also a part of the Pathfinder consortium.

http://www.standingtogether.org.uk

Spring Impact

Spring Impact is a not-for-profit social enterprise born out of the frustration of seeing social organisations constantly reinventing the wheel and wasting scarce resources. Spring Impact uses a combination of tested commercial and social principles and extensive practical expertise to support organisations to identify, design and implement the right social replication model to scale their social impact.