Action to end violence against women and girls is set to save future lives, Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister has said. First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly launched the Regional Change Fund aimed at tackling the issue on Tuesday.
It came at an event at the Stormont Pavilion attended by representatives from groups including Nexus, Women’s Aid and Barnardo’s, and several months after the launch of the Executive’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls strategy. Some seven women were murdered in Northern Ireland last year.
Ms O’Neill emphasised their approach was working in partnership with organisations to focus on prevention. “This is very much a focus on prevention, £1.2 million, which comes on the back of our recent announcement of £2 million around the community change fund which will support groups to provide prevention works in towns and villages right across the north,” she said.
“This is us delivering on the commitment we made that we would prioritise ending violence against women and girls, and we very much believe that today is another mark of progress in this area.”. Ms O’Neill insisted that the work “will make a difference”.
She said: “I believe it will make a difference, I think we all believe it will make a difference because the whole focus of our strategy is around prevention. “We know we won’t turn this around overnight, our strategy is over quite a number of years, but this is the first two-year delivery plan and it is taking it right into the heart of communities around prevention work.
