As the person responsible for honing the business model of this outstanding charity, Gill kindly gave us an interview as well as joining the panel for our live Symposium. 

The services of Fortalice are incredibly robust, having been developed over 40 years, with continuous updating and expanding to meet the escalating needs of an increasing number of victims.  Yet Gill knows better than anyone that there is so much more to be done.

Being a single parent gave Gill the motivation to go back to University, studying to be a Lecturer in further education. Successfully earning her qualification, Gill began teaching and was recognised as one of the first lecturers to be accredited with QTLS status.  Continuing on her path of education, Gill earned several other degrees and qualifications in counselling, clinical supervising, and many others too numerous to delve into! Gill worked as a Volunteer Counsellor at Fortalice and quickly became interested in the line of work. She became a Board Member after a terribly unfortunate event that led to the death of one of her students, learning more on what she could do to educate and assist people around domestic abuse. Gill faced budget cuts when entering a new role, but her dedication to aiding women, families and children suffering from domestic abuse lead to developing an entirely new business model with a dedicated team of staff.This new business model included counselling services for women and children, educational programmes being delivered in schools, a project helping young people suffering in abusive relationships and much more to meet the needs of multiple types of victims in a productive way.

“Every victim should have a voice, and have an opportunity, from every walk of life” she told us.  “We also need to have a bigger focus on educating our children.  When I see children coming in that are broken, they’re cutting themselves and self-harming, and some have suicidal ideation.  We need to do an awful lot more to let those children reach out.”