Poppy Project in danger as funding withdrawn

[methodsandmaterials]

The Poppy Project (PP) was recently told that it's government funding would be withdrawn. This means that the organisation which is specifically devoted to supporting and rehabilitating trafficked women is now fighting for survival.

The money was redirected to the Salvation Army; as you'll read in the article, it was believed that the SA was "much better for victims of trafficking". I find this very hard to believe. While the SA does excellent work in a number of fields, I can not understand why their skill set would be better suited than the PP whose sole remit revolves around supporting women who have been through a terrible ordeal.

But I suppose that my real issue is that a desperately needed resource is being taken away from one of society's most vulnerable groups. The PP has been referred to as a lifeline, and I just can't believe that it's very livelihood is in danger.

I'd be very interested in your thoughts here - particularly with respect to anything that we as MNers could do to help.

(FYI - I should clarify that I am in no way affiliated to or employed by the PP. I'm just a random individual who has always admired their work.)

I should mention that the website for the Poppy Project is here.

The Poppy Project's biggest problem is that the research on which it relies is not reliable in itself. That is not to say that there isn't a problem, it's just that they lay themselves open to "you're a solution trying to find a problem" charges.

I'm in the middle of making tea, so will have a ponder more later.

prolesworth, the decision was taken by the Ministry of Justice. The irony is incredible isn't it? According to this article , Crispin Blunt MP had final say.
The article also provides contact details for Denise McShane MP; she is campaigning for the decision to be reversed.

Sorry, I forgot about this thread.

Here's an article about the Big Brothel report I see from Prolesworth's link that they have commissioned new research which is fantastic. Because otherwise all discussion stalls from the off and decisions like this are made. Why on earth couldn't the government have waited until the publication of the new research findings?

I apologise for the derail and I know that I have done exactly the same thing as the critics. However, research needs to be robust so that the results become the talking point, not the construction of the research itself (see climate change threads in every corner of the internet.)

For the record, I'm not a denier and I am appalled at this decision.

There's another thread on this that I started over here. It includes a link to donate to the Poppy Project.