Women’s Aid Leicestershire Limited was established in 1974 when we opened the first refuge in Leicester to support women and children fleeing domestic abuse. Since then we have continued to provide vital assistance to all victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. Our work continues to be as important now as it was when we first began.

Women's Aid Leicestershire Limited is part of a consortium of three local, specialist providers called United Against Violence & Abuse (UAVA). Alongside FreeVA and Living Without Abuse, we aim to provide a simplified journey,  which can be accessed by anyone who has been affected by domestic abuse and / or sexual violence.

Chair of the Board of Trustees

Zabin Chauhan is a Senior Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). She works with the Crown Court Team and prosecutes individuals who have committed serious offences in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

She is committed to voluntary work and is keen to support and assist WALL at a strategic level so that it can continue supporting vulnerable individuals. She has previously volunteered for other charities such as Reunite, Leicestershire Law Centre and Welfare Rights Advice Service.

Zabin qualified as a lawyer 14 years ago. Prior to joining the CPS, she worked as a family lawyer and represented many vulnerable men and women who were victims of domestic abuse.

Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees

Alison Lockley first qualified as a Youth Worker in the 1980s. For six years she worked in a Leicester project delivering a curriculum of social and political education to unemployed young adults, with an emphasis on work with young women. From here she moved to London and worked in a number of social housing organisations providing accommodation for homeless people with additional support needs, including experience of sexual or domestic abuse.

Alison then worked as Operations Manager in a large housing association in Manchester, overseeing a range of supported housing projects, including a 23 bed project for women with young children. She went on to set up and manage a project for teenage parents, developing a range of support mechanisms and funding schemes to enable young mothers to return to education. Alison then returned to education herself and undertook comparative research into models of welfare to work initiatives aimed at single mothers; and was employed as an associate lecturer on Manchester Metropolitan University’s Early Years Education degree course. Returning to London, she worked as an Investigator for the Health Service Ombudsman, investigating complex complaints about NHS bodies. Alison joined WALL‘s Board of Trustees in 2018.

Head of the Fundraising Sub-Committee

Marea Roberts has had a varied career starting out as a beautician. She joined her family fabric business in Leicester and Coventry and was involved for over twenty years.  Marea was active politically holding several positions in the Labour Party including General Election agent and became a district councillor in 1996.  She was a Trustee of Leicester Children’s Holidays for over 22 years organising many fundraising events.  Marea worked for National Charity ‘Marie Curie’ as Area Fundraising Manager for much of central England for thirteen years before retiring in 2012.

Head of the HR & Finance Sub-Committee

Nicola Meskimmon is a Senior HR Advisor with Leicester City Council and has worked in Human Resources at operational and strategic level for over 12 years, in both local government and the voluntary sector. Nicola has had plenty of voluntary experience having previously sat on the Voluntary Management Committee of a local primary school After School Club for 5 years, worked as support to a local food bank and soup kitchen for the homeless, acted as a befriender and trainer with The Terence Higgins Trust in London and spent 2 years in rural Kenya as a teacher.

Members of the Board

Mary Tyler has been a trustee for over 15 years, starting this role when she worked as a Principal Lecturer at De Montfort University. Previously she worked in many roles with young people and in the community including adventure playground worker, social worker, group worker and youth and community worker in London and East Anglia.

Mary has always been committed to single gender work with young women as an opportunity for confidence building. Her work at De Montfort involved teaching informal education, social policy and management to youth and community work students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, tutoring on management programmes for children and young people’s services leaders in the East Midlands, and undertaking research and evaluation. She has also worked for the National Youth Agency in Leicester and for the Open University.

Sandra Parkinson is now retired having had an interesting career in careers guidance for adults.   Sandra enjoyed working with many community groups in the heart of Leicester including Highfields, St Mathews and Beaumont Leys.  Her work in Highfields raised Sandra’s awareness of the isolation of women in the community despite living close to their own ethnic groups.  Working with Leicester Libraries, Sandra ran support groups raising self-confidence and preparing women for returning to work. Sandra then moved into a training role, working with careers advisors who supported vulnerable people.  Sandra the moved to Leicestershire County Council spending two years training a team of careers advisors working within the community.

Patricia Scholes-Noble lived in central London, prior to moving to the East Midlands, working with street homeless men. She eventually managed the first women’s hostel opened by the charity she worked for. In more recent years, she worked with blind and visually impaired Further Education students and then with adolescents with special needs. Patricia is also a trained counsellor.