Rebecca Collard joins the Centre as a Senior Practitioner Fellow

"I’ve been a Victim and Witness Care Officer in the Lighthouse Safeguarding Unit for Avon and Somerset Police for two years, working with investigating officers and external support agencies to best engage and support enhanced victims and witnesses at pre and post charge stages of the justice system. As part of my ongoing professional and research interest in support and engagement-related initiatives and behaviours, I also hold several voluntary roles within the Force, including a tactical advisory role for Hate Crime and also as a member of the Force-wide Domestic Violence Influencers’ Working Group. The latter role has included data analysis for a pilot project on Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) contact with domestic violence victims, the outcome of which contributed to the project report submitted in October.

Prior to this, I enjoyed a long teaching and academic management career at all educational levels: starting as a secondary school teacher in Sheffield, I then taught in Japan and Spain before returning to the UK to complete a first Masters in Applied Linguistics, followed by teaching and management posts in UK Further and Higher Education institutions. My most recent educational post was seven very happy years as Deputy Director at the Centre for Academic English and Foundation Studies at the University of Bristol, with an advisory and external examiner role in academic English Language qualifications, and an additional remit for student and staff welfare. Upon completing a part-time MSc in Psychology of Education at the university in 2019, I undertook the new opportunities afforded by my current post at Avon and Somerset Police.

Similarly, I am thrilled and excited to be joining the Centre on secondment, and the very welcome opportunity of working with Dr Lis Bates, Dr Dominic Reed, Dr Holly Taylor-Dunn, Dr Shona Morrison and Dr Anna Hopkins on the research project on Victim Disengagement by Domestic Abuse and Rape Victims. With a strong, empirical belief in the long-term value of learning and support initiatives, and working experience of positively impactful interventions in both the educational and policing sectors, I am hugely motivated to be joining this research project. It comes at a crucial time in terms of national policing priorities around violence against women and girls, in which fully-informed policing and victim support is more vital than ever, and I very much look forward to taking valuable research-led understanding of best practice back to what is already a proactive and forward-thinking police force." Rebecca Collard