Meet the team

SARAH STACK, RAISE YOUR VOICE COORDINATOR

Sarah has worked for over 15 years in the fields of Community Education; Women, Peace & Security; Gender and Racial Equality; Peacebuilding; Youth Development; and Social Justice. She has worked across grassroots and public sector levels for many years and has represented women and underserved communities at local, regional and international levels.

Sarah is a qualified trainer and assessor having developed a portfolio of programmes spanning personal development, leadership, mediation, community development, and women’s empowerment.

Helen Crickard, co-ordinator
reclaim the agenda

Helen Crickard is the Co-ordinator for Reclaim the Agenda, a coalition of feminist, youth and LGBTQI+, community organisations and trade unions, with a mission to connect and mobile women to promote feminist activism through education campaigning and celebration. We are striving for a life free from poverty and discrimination. Healthcare services that meet our particular needs and childcare provision that is good, affordable and flexible. To live free from domestic and sexual violence and abuse, and live in a society where women are equally represented as decision-makers.

louise coyle, director
Northern Ireland Rural Women’s network

Louise is the organisation Director for Northern Ireland Rural Women’s Network (NIRWN).  Northern Ireland Rural Women’s Network (NIRWN) was established in September 2006 working towards a vision of an equitable society where rural women are visible, influential and valued.

NIRWN is a membership-based organisation whose mission is ‘to advance the participation and recognition of rural women’ at local, regional and strategic level. Louise has worked with the organisation since its inception and prior to this worked in both the community/voluntary and statutory sectors.

Anne McVicker, director
Women’s Resource & Development agency

Anne took up post in Women’s Resource & Development Agency-WRDA as Director in January 2014 and has an extensive wealth of experience acquired over the past thirty-five years delivering community development, skills building, strategic planning and peacebuilding activities within the Women’s Sector. Anne has held a wide variety of roles, from working as a Welfare Rights and Housing Worker to working across communities, playing a significant role in both the establishment and development of Shankill Women’s Centre and WOMEN’STEC.

Deirdre Quinn, Training and Development Manager Women’s Resource & Development agency

Deirdre Quinn came to WRDA in 2018, with over 20 years of practical work experience in economic development and recruitment/training.  She has specialised in the Welfare to work sector, with substantial experience designing and delivering Employability programmes, Motivational and Confidence building courses and one-to-one Coaching and Mentoring.  As the Training Development Manager at WRDA, she has responsibility for overseeing training, with particular emphasis on the management, design and delivery of the Community Facilitator’s programme and Belfast City Council Capacity Building programmes.

Siobhán Harding, Policy Worker

Women’s Support Network

Siobhán has worked for the Women’s Support Network (WSN) for 5 years as a Policy & Research Officer.  She is responsible for drafting research papers and consultation responses on issues that impact women on behalf of the Women’s Regional Consortium in Northern Ireland.  She does this by holding focus groups with local women discussing the issues important to them and reflecting their views in policy documents and papers. Siobhán is a member of the Women’s Policy Group which is a platform for women working in policy and advocacy roles in different organisations to share their work and speak with a collective voice on key issues.

Karen Sweeney, director
Women’s Support Network

Karen has over twenty years’ experience working with the women’s sector in a variety of settings and has been the Director of the Women’s Support Network (WSN) since 2014.  Karen took up this role to advocate for and lobby to ensure that the work of the fourteen women’s centres across NI, and other women’s sector organisations providing vital services for women in disadvantaged communities, remains a key priority for government. In 2019 WSN secured funding through the ROSAUK Justice & Equality Fund to develop and launch a new Rape Crisis Service for NI, a service that had not been available for 16 years.

Elaine Crory, Women's Sector Lobbyist
Women’s Resource & Development agency

Elaine Crory is a Women’s Sector Lobbyist at the Women’s Resource & Development Agency (WRDA), lobbying elected representatives and decision-makers on issues that impact women in NI. Elaine has worked at WRDA since 2018 on peacebuilding, VAWG and Raise Your Voice. Prior to coming to WRDA, she worked in education, delivering adult education programmes focused on politics and history. She is currently a specialist advisor on VAWG to the Women & Equalities Committee at Westminster.