Top award and grant bonus for CSE charity

Swinton Lock Activity Centre has been given the cash over three years from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

Meanwhile, Swinton Lock chief executive Jayne Senior took the community impact category and the main prize at the Sue Ryder Yorkshire Women of Achievement Awards 2016.

It followed her outstanding achievement recognition at the Women of the Year Awards in London last October.

The recognition has been for her efforts to fight and raise awareness of child sexual exploitation, dating back more than 15 years to when she was in charge of the Risky Business youth project.

She said: “It’s a bitters-sweet feeling. If I’d found a cure for cancer or something like that, then these awards would feel different.

“But with child sexual exploitation, it’s not something that’s done. We’ve got a long way to go and we need to keep moving forward.

“I keep saying to myself that it’s important because it keeps things in the public eye, so we continue to make improvements.”

She added: “As I keep telling people, it’s not just Rotherham any more, it’s across the complete UK.”

The Esmee Fairbairn cash represents a new source of funding for Swinton Lock, which runs activities like boat trips and art therapy for abuse survivors and other groups.

Jayne said: “We’ve just found out that we’ve been successful and this is great news for Swinton Lock.

“Basically, the money is across the service for staffing costs to help us to continue with what we are doing.”