This #CloreSocialFellowFriday, we sat down with Veronika Susedkova to talk about leadership, strong peer networks, and her work as the Regional Women Centred Advisor and Trainer at WomenCentre. Veronika is a Clore Social Fellow from the 2020 Emerging Leader Women and Girls’ Programme.

Can you give us some background information about your role and your organisation?

I work for WomenCentre, we’re a regional organisation providing services to women in Kirklees, Calderdale and Bradford in West Yorkshire. WomenCentre is also part of a project called Connecting Opportunities that works with new migrants to develop their skills and opportunities to find work, as well as to improve their English, and become more embedded in local communities.

I have the role of regional advisor and specifically focus on women-centred ways of working. So rather than doing a frontline delivery, which is what our organisation mostly does, I work with women on the project and our project partners to use our six principles of women-centred ways of working in all that we do. When the pandemic happened, we adapted those principles into digital and remote or blended ways of working. This includes asking women we work with questions such as: ‘How long should online sessions be?’ ‘What time?’ ‘What topics should we cover?’ ‘How structured should sessions be?’ After going through those questions and more, we came up with a very practical toolkit on how to set up online service delivery so that it supports women migrants. Part of that means acknowledging that there is always support that has to take place face-to-face, but it’s also about finding a blended model that meets the needs of the women we work with.

You mentioned an ethos of women-centred working, can you expand a little bit on that term and what it looks like?

Starting with enabling women’s access to services, one of the key questions we get asked is about digital poverty and inequity of access to technology. To approach this issue in a woman-centred way, we ask women we work with what they need and then structure the support and funding around those needs. For example, providing childcare during online appointments or covering travel to attend in-person appointments. Luckily our funders are flexible enough to allow us, as the people working and volunteering on the ground who understand how the services work, to move the budget provision around so that we can practically buy things that women need.

It also means being a bit more understanding about the challenges that women are facing at home, and that there are often barriers beyond their control that are preventing them from accessing services. For example, a family might only have one computer, and a child might need it to complete their homework, which might prevent their mother from logging into her group session. Or, for instance, a woman might share that she doesn't have time to engage with the programme right now because of other responsibilities and commitments. So, it is our job to listen to these experiences and work around them. Instead of simply moving on, we would listen to women and pause the programme, sending them regular updates until they’re ready to re-engage with us.

There must be some incredible insights from such an approach! As a result, are you noticing a marked difference to your work and the lives of the women you work with?

Yes, we are. We also want others to benefit from these insights and work in more women-centred ways. Our most recent report, launched in July 2021, highlights digital ways of women-centred working, and is based on lived experiences and contributions from women migrants we have worked with. We focus on some of the challenges the pandemic and policy responses present for women migrants by adapting and developing women centred working with women migrants for digital spaces. We would really like for organisations to use this report and the additional resources as tools to enhance their support and improve the lives of women migrants.

What great leadership! Could you share a little bit about your experience on the Clore Social Women and Girls’ Emerging Leader programme?

The programme was centred around feminist leadership principles - it was something our cohort learned together and can now use a common language for. We may have already been applying some of the principles, but weren’t able to articulate them as such. On the programme, we supported one another in a safe space (which we co-held and co-created) - that made us be braver and gave us confidence and the language to call things out that we didn’t agree with.

Another major impact of the programme was the power of peers. Perhaps that aspect was more enhanced within our 2020 cohort because it was among the first Clore Social programmes that had to pivot to run fully online due to the pandemic. It felt great to be part of that transformation, although it would have been so nice to have come together in person! We were able to get to know each other and build a network that we came back to throughout the programme.

Having a group of skilled women with such a breadth of experience who are able to apply a feminist perspective, outside of my usual amazing network of women, has been really helpful. Together, we looked at how we can support one another on an ongoing basis, not just as friends but also as women leaders offering our skills within the sector and beyond.

Having that peer group and knowing we’re not alone is incredibly powerful. We also hear this from the women we work with; having a group of women with similar experiences, hearing their challenges or how they’ve navigated the system, and understanding that they aren’t on their own is priceless.

What does good leadership look like in that case?

Good leadership is feminist leadership. There is a lot to that, but for me it’s about examining what power we hold in the system and how we use that power; it’s about self-awareness and recognising one’s strength as well as areas for improvement, and appreciating the same in others, and also trying to find effective ways to communicate with others. Power and communication could also be connected to lived experience. And there’s also allyship, which can be indispensable.

We hope to run our next Women & Girls Emerging Leader programme in 2022-2023. To find out more about the programme, and register for updates, please click here.

You can find Veronika on Twitter @VeroSusedkova and on LinkedIn.

You can find WomenCentre on Twitter @WomenCentreCK, Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you would like to be featured for a #CloreSocialFellowFriday, send us an email at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk