Reflections on the Grooming & Coercive Control Summit 2023
Our Founder and Director Jill Corbyn reflects on the impact of the Grooming and Coercive Control Summit 2023, and sets out our next steps. Recordings of webinars and resources are available on our YouTube channel and Resource Library. Read on for more details.
Grooming/coercive control is never the fault of the victim
The above statement was given in response to a feedback survey question asking attendees of one of our Grooming & Coercive Control Summit webinars ‘‘what was your ‘take away learning?’”. This simple but powerful statement encapsulates why the Summit was so important, and the impact that we’ve had. Many people who’ve experienced grooming and coercive control feel ashamed and blame themselves. This compounds an already appalling burden of trauma, silences the voices of those who have suffered this abuse, and makes it even harder for them to reach out for support.
We live in a society where neurodivergent people are more likely to experience grooming and coercive control and have more barriers to accessing support. Yet despite this, when we searched for tailored resources that talk to our experience or provide information and support, we couldn’t find any. At this point we realised that we needed to take action to drive change.
The response to our efforts was inspiring. We were joined by over 1,000 live attendees at across summit week, and hope to continue reaching more people when recordings of the sessions are uploaded to our YouTube channel and added to our website’s Resources Library in January.
We were joined by attendees from across the domestic violence sector, the police service, local authorities, commissioners, and neurodivergent people – many of whom shared that they have lived experience of the issues discussed. Attendees told us that they have a better understanding of neurodivergent experience, adjustments they can make to ensure their services are accessible, and how to respond to subtle indicators that someone may be experiencing abuse.
Our services could do more to engage neurodivergent individuals, and I have already messaged management to share learning in the team meeting!
They told us that the sessions helped them to challenge their own stereotypes and supported them to rethink their approach.
I will think outside the box of different ways of engaging survivors ,and I understand it is not a one size fits all process. I will use different strategies to ensure I can support survivors especially if they are neurodiverse.
People told us that it supported and validated their lived experience.
…more a personal 'take away', I hadn’t realised the extent of the coercive control i had experienced. watching the webinar in both a personal and professional capacity has helped my healing journey and will help me work better to support others in the future. Thank you for covering such a difficult topic so well.
Our ambition with the GCC Summit was to start the conversation, collate knowledge, and share lived experiences of grooming and coercive control. It was an emotional week, and one that we hope will provide a foundation for further conversations around this vitally important topic. We are extremely grateful to all our speakers, blog authors and attendees that worked with us to help meet our ambitions for the event.
We had some beautiful and moving feedback from people via the feedback form, email, and through the website. I am blown away by what we were able to achieve, and the response we’ve had. As an organisation, we are only one year old, and yet with your support we were able to achieve so much—we really ‘did a thing!’ It shows that incredible things are possible when we work together and collaborate with others who share our vision.
So, what’s next?
Webinars
Recordings of all of the GCC Summit webinars and resources will be uploaded to our YouTube channel. They will also find a permanent home on our website, in the Grooming and Coercive Control category of our Resources Library.Resources
All the resources created for the Summit will be collated and shared in the Grooming and Coercive Control category of our Resources Library, so people and services can continue to access them. We are also in the process of collating as many as possible of the external resources referenced by our speakers in their webinars and Q&A sessions. If there was something mentioned in one of the webinars that you’re particularly keen to see, let us know by getting in touch here.Blogs
Finally, if you missed any of the blogs that were published in the run-up to or during the Summit week, they will live permanently on our blog, the NdC Journal for you to read and explore at your leisure.
We are still processing what we heard and carefully considering our next steps to ensure the learning and momentum from the summit is maintained. We are exploring options for further collaborations with our contributors, future summits and other events. So, watch this space!
Once again, we offer our wholehearted thanks to everyone who committed to making a change during the summit – the ripple effect is powerful. Small change in lots of places results in big change.
