Charity Work
Lauren has been Patron of Aurora New Dawn, a registered charity, working with the survivors of domestic abuse, for over 12 years. Aurora Aurora New Dawn | Support for domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking (aurorand.org.uk).
Involved from its inception in 2011, Lauren provided a temporary space for its headquarters, and within four months, moved the team into an office space in Havant city centre on a subsidised basis. This investment allowed the team to grow and flourish in its early days. The Aurora New Dawn team has now grown from one paid member of staff to a team of 17, supported by an enthusiastic band of 10 volunteers, and has generated £9,000,000 PA of services for the charity.
Lauren is personally involved in fundraising, leveraging her business networks, providing ongoing advice, organisational resilience and sustainability as well as offering mentoring to survivors.
The two organisations have a long-term vision to create a women’s centre in the heart of Portsmouth. The Centre will be a sustainable resource for women, creating a safe space for them to access education and childcare to enable them to get back into work and to lead independent, empowered lives free from fear and violence.
Lauren and her family are active volunteers at her local nursing home and volunteer for Contact the Elderly, hosting tea parties. From 9 years old Lauren enjoyed visiting her elderly neighbours, listening to their fantastic stories, whom they have fewer people to share them with.
1.4 million older people are affected by loneliness, and Lauren would like to see more initiatives to make a difference to older generations who deserve more time.
Lauren is particularly interested in protecting the rights of Women and Children
I am unafraid to state that a woman is an adult human female and I believe language matters in terms of protecting the hard fight for rights that women have earned. Whilst I abhor discrimination of any marginalised group, I do believe it is incredibly important to be clear about the impact of the substitution of gender identity for sex in policy and law. I believe in upholding single sex spaces and have become increasingly concerned about the erasure of sex-based language in institutions like the NHS, the judiciary, the education system and even some government departments. If we cannot use language properly and assert the simplest of definitions for males and females, we open up interpretations of policy and law that ensure the loss of the most basic of rights
I am delighted that our government updated policy on transgender women offenders, now meaning those who have committed violent or sexual offences, or who have male genitalia, will no longer be able to be held in mainstream women’s prisons in England and Wales, setting out a common-sense approach to housing transgender prisoners and ensuring the safety of women in our prisons.