Clemence Maheo:
togetHER Against Sexism
Clemence arrived in the UK 20 years ago. She built a career in publishing, watched the world around her, and eventually decided she had seen enough.
Three years ago, she founded togetHER Against Sexism, a collective built to end sexism and sexual violence. “We like to be ambitious,” she says.
The model she adapted had already reached over 200,000 people in France. Clemence and the togetHER collective translated it, brought it to South London, and opened it to everyone. Whatever your gender, whatever your background. “Rather than putting people against each other, we gather everyone, because we can all be allies.” Today the collective has 35 members and has trained over 350 people on how to be proactive bystanders who can identify, address and ultimately end sexism and sexual violence.
A significant step, but one not taken alone
But Clemence wanted to go further. A year and a half ago, she and co-director Joanna Bouilhol registered as a social enterprise to take the training into workplaces, reaching people whose employers bring them to the table rather than waiting for them to show up on their own. It was a significant step, and one she did not take alone. “It can be a bit daunting and a bit lonely to create your business,” she says. “You talk to your partner, your friends, and sometimes they’re a bit fed up about it.”
That is where Trampoline came in. She found the programme through her partner, who was joining for a different business. The one-to-one sessions with Claudine were where she gained the most. “To have tailored advice from someone who was clearly very experienced made a massive, massive difference.” The SPF grant made something else possible: CPD accreditation for their training, at a cost of £800. “It was not an investment we could have done without Trampoline and without the grant from Southwark Council.” With accreditation confirmed, corporate bookings now count as official professional development, unlocking access to a wider pool of clients and partners.
It was not an investment we could have done without Trampoline.
Securing those clients remains the hard part. Gender equality training is not the corporate priority it once was, and Clemence does not pretend otherwise. But she is not deterred. Her goal for the next year is five confirmed training sessions with Southwark-based organisations. And the collective that started it all keeps growing, every month, for free. That part was never negotiable.
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