TW: mentions of gender-based violence
In ‘Funded Out: Money and the Women’s Voluntary Sector’, Maureen Mansfield thoughtfully and shrewdly interrogates the structural implications of restrictive funding models on the women's sector. Drawing from a feminist prison abolition perspective, Mo examines the historic relationship between the women's sector and its societal vision, arguing that prioritising financial gain dilutes the original vision of the sector which was committed to genuine gender, racial and economic social justice.

Mo invites us to disrupt how we think about the prison system and structural violence. Most importantly, Mo poses the simple yet radical question:
‘What if we took at least half of the resources away from the criminal justice system and used those resources to tackle problems at the roots - maybe put it in things like healthcare, education and housing?’
@carceralcollapz Mo Mansfield is a community organiser, advocate and feminist campaigner for prison abolition. Mo has more than 15 years experience working in the voluntary sector in both front-line and management positions at organisations such as Women at WISH, Women In Prison and the Women’s Resource Centre. Much of her work has focussed on providing independent support to criminalised women from a social justice perspective.

She is member of the Reclaim Justice Network; Reclaim Holloway; and is co-founder of the Holloway Prison Stories website. Mo was also part of the organising committee for Abolitionist Futures: the International Conference on Penal Abolition held in London in June 2018. Mo recently completed a MSc focussed on improving services for people with personality disorders. Her final project focus was on the independence of the women’s penal voluntary sector in relation to funding/commissioning changes. She is a Visiting Research Fellow with the Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative at the Open University. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx