New CE of Women's Aid speaks up for women's services and compelling Local authorities to pay for refuges

[stumbledin]

" ... I was shocked in my first week at Women’s Aid to hear that one of our member organisations, RISE in Sussex, had lost local authority funding for providing services for survivors of domestic abuse. The local authority had taken a ‘gender-neutral’ approach to commissioning its domestic abuse services, which led to RISE – a women-centred service which has been providing domestic abuse services for over 25 years – losing the contract. And this is by no means the first time this has happened. This is part of a worrying move by some local authorities to disregard the gendered nature of domestic abuse and to ask domestic abuse services to provide a full range of services on an ever-shrinking budget.

While every survivor of domestic abuse needs to be able to access safety and support, there is clear evidence that women make up the majority of victims and experience the most severe and dangerous forms of domestic abuse – 91% of domestic violence crimes that cause injuries are against women, and three women every fortnight are being killed by a current or former partner in the UK. Women need spaces where they feel completely safe, and women’s refuge and specialist domestic abuse services have the expertise and experience to ensure this. Trust is essential to women feeling able to reach out for support. ... "

www.womensaid.org.uk/international-womens-day-blog-by-chief-executive-of-womens-aid-farah-nazeer/

I cant remember the rule on petitions etc., so pleae edit this OP if in breach not delete the whole thing!

Women's Aid have got a petition on the Parliament web site re funding of women's refuges. This isn't the petition link but a link to the article about why they feel the need to do it www.womensaid.org.uk/international-womens-day-womens-aid-launches-petition-to-require-local-authorities-to-fund-womens-domestic-abuse-services/

Thanks for this, have just signed. I like her

This is great - Women's Aid standing up for women after a period of regulatory capture. Maybe women will feel able to start supporting them again if they're centring women? Definitely a petition worth signing.

This is encouraging, thanks for sharing.

Signed and shared. She sounds like a good woman.

Thanks for this thread. I will sign the petition.

As an aside, does anyone have a link to the research with service users on their views of having transwomen in refuges? If I recall, their views were very different to those produced by their overarching bodies.

From what I've read the recent contact losses were to do with not providing services for men. I don't remember transwomen being mentioned.

Someone else might know more.

Thanks for the link

Signed

Signed and shared. It's good to see Women's Aid standing up for what it it is supposed to stand up for.

This is really positive. I am so pleased she has spoken out on this. I am currently receiving support from women’s aid. It means so much that the support is specific to women and it helps you to make sense of what happened to you much more when you are in an all women group.

bump

Siablue
for you. I’m pleased you’re getting the support you need in a space you feel safe in.

Signed

Thank you I have signed the government petition

It's wonderful that a non-woke person is finally in a position to do something for vulnerable women

Signed. Amazing how much it feels like a big, cheering win that a CE of a charity aimed at supporting women actually seems to, er, feel that she can say this . Pleased though!

Thanks, signed

I don't think refuges should be funded by local authorities. I wish all domestic abuse support was nationally funded but with refuges in every local authority area. I had to go to a refuge and was turned away from several for being from outside their area. Most were nice about it, apologised for not being able to take me, and gave me numbers to try for other places, but one really upset me by being very league of gentlemen about it. It was so hard and scary to have to leave home and feeling I might be unwelcome made everything a million times worse.

Every survivor deserves support, and we know that safe, separate services are necessary for this. Do not defund women’s services in exchange for a ‘one size fits all’ approach, because this does not work for domestic abuse services.

Well said, Farah Nazeer. Good to see someone in a responsible position actually taking responsibility for women. And every influential woman who speaks up for women brings us a step closer to restoring sanity.

Hi spiraldownwards - I am sorry you had such a bad experience. I thought the whole point of the National Domestic Violence Helpline was that they kept a list of where there were bed spaces across the country. This is because part of the purpose is to ensure that women dont stay in the area where their abuser lives. And at the moment there is a free rail service to help women get to other areas.

Maybe they dont do this anymore. Or did you apply through your local council. I cant think why else you were treated as you were.

I am aware that my local council appears not to work with the National DV Helpline which is very, very strange.

Maybe there needs to be a new campaign making sure women are aware of how the provision of refuge services work.

Hope you are in a safe place now.

This is so cheering. Hope that Women's Aid in Wales take courage from Farah. Women need women-only spaces.

Thanks for the link OP, signed.

, but what does she class as a "woman"? Have Woman's Aid explicitly said they mean natal born Women?

Sorry but it's so difficult to know what people actually mean, when they say they support a "women centred service". Does WA include natal born men who identify as being of the feminine gender, as "Women"?

Looking at the website, I don't know the answer

Spring Crocus

This keeps coming up and the answer if that Women's Aid (WAFE) is the federation of refuges. They do not tell member groups what to do, although they do set standards.

Each refuge decides (or their funders decide for them) whether their service is open to trans women eg Rise in Brighton. Soif you have concerns look at the web site for your local refuge, and if you think they are not protecting women, you could join their management committee and start working on the inside to change their practice.

But I think the point about this statement is the fact that it recognises that women need DV service more than men, because women are the ones who suffer male violence.

And as such is a much more overt statment than previous CE of WA have made. Or they may have made in the past but were worn down by the relentless misuse of the word gender, which I think still crops up.

This is part of what mumsnet and others are doing. Is making those aware who have sleep walked into the gender narrative, that violence against women is a sex based crime.

So maybe not a full cheer, but getting closer to getting back to WA roots.

Oh I'm cherring, yes. But there is always that niggle, now at anything said