Rural communities

Rural communities

About this theme

This theme covers topics relating to strengthening rural communities. Between 2019-2023 the Churchill Fellowship ran a designated programme of Fellowships on this theme in partnership with the Royal Countryside Fund. Fellows from across the years continue to explore this theme as part of their Fellowships. You can read more about them, their reports, and their latest activity below. Fellows’ stories

Blogs & conversations Bringing Rural Abuse into Focus: What survivors are telling us, and why we must listen

As part of my Fellowship, I travelled across rural regions in the USA, Canada, and Australia, connecting with experts and victim-survivors to explore how to improve safety and achieve equity. My learning and earlier conversations with Rhianon Bragg – a survivor whose story reveals deep cracks in our justice system – helped shape my focus post-Fellowship, laying the groundwork for a new social enterprise to raise the status of rural domestic abuse in public policy and support more coordinated, realistic responses.

By Judith Vickress, 2025

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