Mrs Miriam Merkova

I have worked for over 20 years in the violence against women and girls sector with different responsibilities, including setting up the first project in Wales for women trafficked for sexual exploitation and managing a pan-Wales service supporting women in conflict with the criminal justice system. I have produced and co-authored several reports and toolkits including the Children Matter Report that set out a business case for the commissioning of specialist support for children and young people who have experienced gender-based violence, a Survivor Engagement Toolkit based on the principles of trauma-informed, strength-based and needs-led engagement and the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan 2023 – 2028 Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy.

Through my employment, I noticed that the voices of practitioners working in the violence against women and girls sector are seldom heard, even less so when these are considered in relation to their personal experiences of abuse. Studies indicate that one in two practitioners are survivors of abuse but little is known about how they experience their dual identity.  My PhD study explores their unique experiences to consider how survivorship is constituted in policy and practice. Furthermore, by positioning practitioners-survivors within an ecological framework the study aims to widen the lens of harm beyond the individual and relational level to consider the broader context of encroaching neoliberal values that have led to competitive and marketized commissioning, hierarchical and professionalised services and individualised discourses of trauma, which have undermined the feminist social justice principles upon which services were first established.