Trustees' Week: Sarah Mullen
To celebrate Trustees' Week, we spoke to five of our Trustees about why they choose to spend their time supporting Respect.
It’s Trustees’ Week, and this year’s theme is “Making a difference in changing times”, a sentiment particularly relevant for us at Respect, as the charity has been going through a period of growth and change.
With more attention on - and funding for - perpetrator work, we’ve grown quickly to develop, deliver and support in this area. With this growth, comes new challenges, and we’ve relied on our trustees to support and steer us during this exciting period.
To celebrate Trustees' Week, we spoke to five of our Trustees about why they choose to spend their time supporting Respect.
Sarah is Respect’s Chair, and has led the board through an extraordinary period of growth and development. She has overseen the development and implementation of Respect’s new strategy and has helped develop and diversify the Board.
"I became the Chair of Respect over six years ago. I had been working in an inner London Council and my eyes had been opened to the devastating impact of domestic abuse on survivors' and children’s lives. So when I saw the opportunity to get involved with a charity that was trying to tackle the cause of that violence - engaging directly with the perpetrators - I took it."
"Since then my eyes have been opened further, not only to the pervasive extent of violence but to the wider issues in terms of societal attitudes towards - and expectations of - both women and men, and the systematic biases which make things harder for the victims rather than the perpetrators."
"My job has been to support and develop the Board and to work with Jo Todd, our CEO, to steer the organisation through a huge growth in awareness of and demand for Respect's work. I am really proud of all that Respect has achieved, but the reason I love being a trustee is that I am learning all the time - from my colleagues on the board, from the staff team and from other players in the sector - and my thinking and perspectives are constantly being challenged."
