Ruth Austen-Vincent

Ruth joined Equality Works in 2009 from Sefton Council, where she was Assistant Director of Sefton Equalities Partnership. She brings a depth of experience working across the North West in Local Government and the Voluntary Sector, tackling issues such as poverty alleviation and homelessness.

As Senior Client Consultant, Ruth is responsible for managing our relationships with a number of key clients. She is also a key member of the team delivering an ongoing programme of support to the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA). Other recent projects include workshops on Delivering Services to Diverse Communities for City of Wakefield Council and equalities training as part of a wider package of support we are currently delivering to City West Housing Trust in Manchester.

In her previous role as Head of Social Inclusion, Ruth was accountable for leading Sefton Council’s Equality and Diversity Strategy, including development and implementation of the Single Equality Scheme, planning the scope and development of the Sefton Equalities Partnership and engaging key public and voluntary sector partners to engage in the scheme including local authority, health and housing partners.

In this role Ruth was responsible for a number of specific projects which included:-
• Managing the Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Team in Sefton; and
• Coordinating the work on hate crime in Sefton and delivering on the
  Community Cohesion Strategy.

She previously worked for Liverpool City Council as Manger of the Community Roots team. Ruth was accountable for the development and operation of the Community Roots project, an initiative of Kensington Regeneration. This was funded by the European Social Fund and New Deal for Communities and Ruth was accountable for ensuring the project delivered against its targets in relation to the ESF, New Deal and local requirements.

Prior to that she managed the operation of the Liverpool Drug and Alcohol Action Team hosted by Liverpool Health Authority. This required delivery on the Home Office directives in relation to drugs and alcohol and linking this with local needs. In this role Ruth supported the development of a service in HMP Liverpool together with the other Merseyside DAT’s. She also led the commissioning of a significant local drug information campaign over Christmas and New Year over two years which involved both development and testing of various media strategies and overall evaluation of the campaign.