I am Molly Ellis Founder and CEO of Project Accountability CIC but my story does not begin with leadership or recognition it begins with trauma survival and systems failure at fourteen I ran away from abuse and entered the care system learning early that safety was never guaranteed by sixteen I was pregnant holding onto hope for a different future but everything changed in a single moment when my partner was brutally attacked by over twenty men on a London train in a racially motivated assault leaving him in a coma he has never woken from the trauma triggered premature labour and I gave birth to my daughter surrounded by fear grief and chaos that moment did not just break my circumstances it broke my sense of identity and safety what followed was a spiral shaped by trauma mental health challenges toxic relationships and vulnerability to exploitation I was navigating life without the support or understanding needed and like many young women I was drawn into environments where control and survival blurred together pregnant with my second child I was convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison where I gave birth again behind bars only to have my baby taken from me months later that was rock bottom but it is not unique it is the reality of many women failed by systems that do not understand coercive control or trauma in prison I found reflection faith and purpose and made a decision to rebuild and use my experience to create change on release I rebuilt my life from nothing and recognised that what I had lived through was not isolated it was systemic young girls were being groomed exploited and criminalised while the system misunderstood them so I founded Project Accountability CIC a lived experience led organisation built to challenge those failures we work with young people at risk individuals leaving prison and women affected by violence providing trauma informed mentoring emotional development and real pathways into employment and stability we do not just support people we walk alongside them rebuilding trust confidence and opportunity our work has supported individuals into employment reduced reoffending risk and created safer futures but I understood frontline work alone would never be enough so I stepped into policy research and national influence I now work with the Centre for Britain and Europe contributing to research on coercive control and exploitation identifying critical safeguarding gaps particularly for young women and I am working with the BBC on a major documentary investigating the unreported sexual and criminal exploitation of girls across the UK bringing lived experience into a global platform to expose how girls are groomed controlled and then criminalised this is about truth visibility and accountability alongside this I lead the What’s Love campaign a cultural intervention challenging how young people understand relationships power and control addressing the rise in violence against women and girls through storytelling music and lived experience while informing policy development including Ellis Law to strengthen accountability and safeguarding my leadership is different because I have lived the system I now help to change I understand the emotional and structural barriers that statistics cannot capture I lead with empathy but also urgency because every gap in the system has a human cost today I stand as someone who has transformed adversity into impact from the care system to prison to CEO influencing national conversations my mission is to protect young people challenge exploitation and ensure no one is criminalised for the harm they have experienced I am committed to building systems that listen respond and change because leadership is not about title it is about responsibility and I carry that every single day I am also building a movement that connects frontline delivery with national policy and cultural change ensuring that lived experience is no longer an afterthought but a driving force in how systems are designed my work sits across communities policing research and media creating alignment where there has historically been fragmentation I have engaged directly with law enforcement contributed to safeguarding discussions and supported operational work that identifies young people at risk before harm escalates I am focused on prevention early intervention and long term outcomes not short term fixes because the cost of getting this wrong is measured in lives not statistics I continue to push for accountability at every level challenging narratives that blame victims and advocating for a system that recognises exploitation in all its forms my voice is rooted in truth and my leadership is grounded in experience I do not speak about change I build it every day through action partnership and persistence ensuring that the next generation is not left to navigate the same failures that I did