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End of Summer 2023 and news had reached Highland that the Scottish theme for the 2023, 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women would be “Imagine A Scotland Free From GBV”.
I was in a meeting with some colleagues from our local Violence Against Women Partnership (VAWP). We talked at length about how this imagining would change the Scotland we had grown in and the one in which we now lived. Our conversation was a powerful one, few women have no personal experience of Gender Based Violence and the room was occupied by women who work in the field.
I was to find out in the months to come that this idea had been come from a woman called Amy Black of Dundee. Amy had asked this question during a Community Arts project she was undertaking as part of her Degree.
I left the online meeting, lifted my pencil and wrote a poem called Imagine. It flowed from me and required very few, if any, amendments. It was inspired entirely by the vision of Amy Black and our group’s conversation.
Dr Emma Plant of Moray VAWP and I were chatting some days later and I told her about the poem. Emma is one of those fine women, who support the work of other women and had been responsible for Christina McKelvie MSP coming to read my poetry in the Parliament. I read Imagine to Emma and she said we should take it to the national VAWG group. We did, they liked it.
NHS Highland’s Communications Team created a video and the decision was made to share the video as part of the national 16 Days campaign. It was shared widely, cast onto building, shown in cinemas, circulated to Chief Executives of all Scottish Local Authority’s and shown at the launch of the refreshed Equally Safe Strategy, in Edinburgh, during the 16 Days.
Ultimately, the 16 Days Campaign was nominated Best Campaign In Scotland at the Public Sector Awards. I attended the awards ceremony at The Scottish Parliament with the team from Improvement Service and their guest Amy Black. I cherish the photographs of us, quite delighted with ourselves and where our imaginings had taken us.
I am confident that some fine day I will write more about the achievements of Amy Black. She is quite the inspiration.