November 2020

16Daysofactivism X Rivers Lpc – Rosa

30th November 2020

Founder of Rivers LPC, Jeredyne Stanley, shares the story behind her organisation and explains how culturally and linguistically appropriate support is vital for the women in its community.

What’s the story behind Rivers LPC?

“Out of every woman is a river (life) waiting to flow”. I believe that women carry within them a life source that can flow into the community, through the nations, and ultimately affect the world. When they come together, women can influence significant change. Just as when rivers come together they can change a landscape.

In some parts of the world, being born a woman means your life path is already decided for you. You take your first step on the path the minute you take your first breath.

My advocacy for women is influenced by my lived experience and struggles of sexism, racism, xenophobia, and being a single mother. I am influenced by the path my life has taken. I am firm about the rationale that the river within me needs to be allowed to flow; as well at the rivers within other women.

What does Rivers do?

Rivers LPC was founded 11 years ago, as a result of the disappointment at the lack of support for local women in the wider community. Rivers’ model of advocacy is beneficiary-led. Rivers LPC is made up of women wisely chosen for their passion, dedication, and willingness to make a difference to another woman’s life. We are able to support each other as a team. We are also willing to be accountable to each other as we work together.

Rivers has built trust in the local community as we work proactively with local women. Hopefully, the river living in them can flow out and join the community and build it up.

Who do you support?

We work with all women, especially those who do not feel confident in approaching established institutions for support. Most of our clients are migrants. Some women we support for years, while others come to us intermittently or only need one-off advice. We support all women but most need more support than others. Some are broken, some are breaking and some are nearing breaking point. Rivers’ aim is to support, signpost and try to piece together the women’s wellbeing in a safe space. Therefore, Rivers does a lot of signposting and community integration. We fill a gap that other organisations do not prioritise. By the time women get to Rivers they have been victims of the system; a system that should protect all.

What kinds of support does Rivers LPC provide?

Our support is bespoke and tailored to the women we deal with. Cultural empathy sits at its heart and we take an informal approach. We have evolved over the years to provide informal, diversified approach to our support. This includes English classes, employability programmes, DV awareness, financial abuse, mentoring workshops, coffee mornings, community groups meetings, and cultural awareness programmes.

We appoint community champions who go out to the ethnic community they live in and promote Rivers’ services among their own people.

What are some of the specific issues facing women?

Women affected by No Recourse to Public Funds

This legislation has a worse impact on women with childcare needs. Having a conditional immigration status or being allowed to work but denied access to any form of public funds or assistance makes it difficult for women to find sustainable employment. They therefore have no independent income or savings.

Dorothy has been volunteering for a local charity for five years. She was offered leave to remain in August 2020, just after the first lockdown ended. As she is not entitled to benefits, Dorothy has to look for work at a time when there is hardly any work available. Dorothy has a family to look after.

Women and domestic violence

Many of our clients are living in a domestic abuse situation but are not aware. Others find the phrase ‘domestic abuse’ very distasteful.

Women will often come to us having been already socially and economically marginalised. They face pressure from their immediate communities which makes it more difficult for them to recognise abuse. Even when they do, they would prefer a different definition and may just want the abuse to stop. If support is to be given there is also the communication and cultural barrier to consider.

Even when some of these women know where to get help from, there may be a lack of culturally or linguistically appropriate support available. Some women need support from others who share the same culture and language as them.

This is an important factor in building a level of trust and understanding to help women navigate support services.

Living in fear during the COVID19 lockdown

“If I take the voucher and food parcel, will that be classed as benefits?” was the most asked question during the COVID19 lockdown.”

With the threat of a criminal record hovering over them if they accept ‘benefits’, many families with NRPB visas went hungry rather than seek or accept support from established charities.

This is because they may not be familiar with the difference between a charity, organisation and government.

How did you adapt your services during Covid-19?

We refocused our aims and goals during the pandemic. As Rivers already has the experience of having a culturally empathetic approach, we were able to focus on keeping women safe, providing food parcels, food vouchers, as well as hygiene packages. We also host digital skills workshops which have been a big help for the women we support.

Visit Rivers LPC’s website, follow them on Twitter, and join Jeredyne on LinkedIn.

Rosa and Smallwood Trust Secure Tampon Tax Funding

16Daysofactivism Mewso On Hymenoplasty And Virginity Testing

Rosa and Smallwood Trust Secure Tampon Tax Funding

27th November 2020

Rosa, the UK Fund for women and girls, and Smallwood Trust are delighted to have been given the largest single award from this year’s Tampon Tax Fund. The work of our two organisations over the past year has demonstrated just how great the need is in the women and girls’ sector for sustainable funding.

We are looking forward to working with our partners including Women’s Resource Centre, Imkaan, Women’s Equality Network Wales, Women’s Support Network Northern Ireland, Women’s Support Project Scotland to ensure this funding reaches organisations in all four nations.

We welcome the fact that this year more funding has been allocated to specialist women’s organisations. This is an important step in addressing the funding challenges that many women and girls’ organisations have faced, which were dramatically compounded by the Covid19 pandemic.

Rosa UK and Smallwood Trust are delighted to have received money from the Tampon Tax fund. We are looking forward to distributing this funding to where it is most needed, enabling women’s organisations across the UK to support women and girls to overcome the complex and long-lasting challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. We know women’s organisations are in desperate need of funding to enable them to do this vital work.
Rebecca Gill, Executive Director, Rosa

Read the full statement from DCMS.

10 Ways Telemedicine Can Help Survivors

16Daysofactivism X Rivers Lpc – Rosa

10 Ways Telemedicine Can Help Survivors

26th November 2020

Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019 but the battle for access to services is far from won. Northern Ireland is currently the ONLY part of the UK and Ireland that has does not provide an abortion telemedicine service for women and pregnant people. As part of their #16DaysofActivism campaign, Alliance for Choice has recorded the video below to explain why telemedicine is so needed in Northern Ireland.

Alliance for Choice believes telemedicine as mutual aid helps prevent violence against women, girls and pregnant people. In the midst of a global pandemic, telemedicine emerged as a key way to sustain essential reproductive healthcare services. It protects women, pregnant people and healthcare workers from contracting Covid-19.

Beyond the pandemic, telemedicine can help accommodate people who can’t travel to clinics for geographical reasons, as well as people with limited financial and transport means, people who have working and caring responsibilities, asylum seekers and migrants without travel documents and people in situations where coercive control and domestic violence are prevalent.

10 ways telemedicine can help survivors

Intimate partner violence is a risk factor for unintended pregnancy and abortion. Telemedicine with pills is safe and rarely has complications.

Domestic abuse prevents access to legal services. Women and pregnant people in NI need access to NHS pills by Post.

Over a third of domestic violence cases start or worsen when someone is pregnant. Easy access to telemedicine abortion care can mitigate immediate harm.

Telemedicine can be done discreetly at home, which guards against reproductive coercion, including birth control sabotage and emotional blackmail.

Some women may find it easier to disclose when in the privacy and familiarity of their own surroundings.

Survivors often regain control of their lives after the crisis of an unplanned pregnancy when they make the best decision for themselves.

The discreet nature of taking telemedicine pills allows someone living with violence to safely take the pills without having to reveal they had an abortion.

Access to safe abortion and contraception is a matter of social justice.

Destigmatising telemedicine can open up the potential for stronger integrated social supports.

Free home abortion with pills would help ease many of the issues caused by intimate partner violence, rape, incest and coercive control.

Visit Alliance for Choice’s website and follow on Twitter.

How Rights Of Women Give Women Access To Justice

Rosa and Smallwood Trust Secure Tampon Tax Funding

How Rights Of Women Give Women Access To Justice

How Rights of Women is challenging the status quo and empowering women to access justice.

Women survivors and victims, and their allies and supporters, have long been at the forefront of fixing our broken justice system. Rights of Women have been an important part of this, ensuring the law is fit for purpose and enables women to seek justice. For example, Rights of Women successfully argued for the Government to expand the evidence list for survivors of domestic abuse to access legal aid for private family law cases via a judicial review (on appeal). In 2018 the law was changed to accommodate this, resulting in many more women accessing family law legal aid.

Whilst we celebrate our successes, we still have a long way to go to challenge and change the justice system in England and Wales which still poses disproportionate barriers to access to justice for women.

It is estimated that over 70% of cases which end up in the Family Court raise concerns of domestic abuse. However, policy makers have historically failed to address the safety and wellbeing of victims and survivors of domestic abuse in private law children proceedings. The focus has been on keeping parents out of court, putting up barriers, compelling them into mediation, and making them co-parent.

By ignoring the lived realities of violence against women and girls, when making decisions that will affect them, the Government is complicit in endangering the lives of those they are appointed to protect.

As a proudly feminist organisation, Rights of Women is built to serve women who have experienced gender-based violence and empower them to access justice. That is why we have been campaigning for the government to recognise the importance of centring women, including victims and survivors of gender-based violence, in a system that is supposed to keep them safe and empower them to seek justice. Earlier this month we wrote to MP Alex Chalk, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of Justice, to challenge the lack of representation on the advisory panel set to guide the review of the presumption of parental involvement.

You can read the letter, which was co-signed by numerous organisations on the frontline of the campaign for women’s empowerment, here.

We are committed to addressing the underrepresentation of women, their perspectives and experiences, in all places decisions are being made. As part of our work, we’ve set up RoW’s Voices of Women Panel. The Panel is made up of women with lived experience of family and criminal law issues, including those who have used the family and/or criminal justice system(s). Its aim is to help guide Rights of Women’s work and, ultimately, ensure more women can access the equality, justice and safety they deserve. We are committed to creating a safe space where women feel valued and their experiences are listened to and acted on to improve information and services for survivors.

Rights of Women will continue to advocate for equal and empowered representation of women from diverse backgrounds and experiences, whether that be within our organisation or the justice system we seek to improve. #nothgingaboutuswithoutus.

Visit Rights of Women’s website and follow on Twitter.

Next Phase Covid 19 Response For BME Led Womens Organisations

10 Ways Telemedicine Can Help Survivors

Next Phase Covid 19 Response For BME Led Womens Organisations

24th November 2020

Rosa announces plans to build a Covid-19 response fund that gives multi-year grants to specialist organisations led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women across the UK. These organisations have unprecedented levels of trust and reach into communities where need is greatest but resource is lacking. We aim to raise a minimum of £1 million for this fund.

Over the past 12 years, Rosa has worked extensively with organisations led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women and is acutely aware of the challenges these organisations consistently face. Many have seen a significant surge in demand without the funding or resources needed to adequately respond to that need.

“The need is urgent and the need is now for specialist BME-led women’s organisations. Covid-19 is exacerbating existing inequalities for Black and minoritised women and these inequalities are only set to increase. Our aim is to help resource and strengthen organisations to meet the holistic needs of the women and girls in their communities, in the tailored way that only specialist ‘by and for’ organisations can do.”
Rehana Reid, Head of Grants, Rosa

This fund expands on our first stage EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND FOR BME WOMEN’S ORGANISATIONS, which we delivered in partnership with Imkaan and which gave grants to refuges and ending-VAWG organisations led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women.

Over the last six weeks, we held calls with 52 of the women’s organisations we recently supported through our two Covid-19 response funds, 80% of which are BME-led. In response to these conversations, we are now:

Launching a next phase response fund for organisations led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women. We believe the fund needs genuine leadership from Black and minoritised women. This work is therefore being led by Rosa Trustees and our Head of Grants, all of whom are women of colour.
Establishing a ‘critical friends’ group made of representatives of BME-led women’s organisations, women of colour working in the funding sector, and women who represent the communities they serve. This group will guide the fund in its development.
Providing a tailored and responsive package to the organisations we fund. This will include the opportunity to join an online platform, access online training, take part in smaller discussion groups, and more.
Sharing what we learn from the programme with funded organisations, donors and wider stakeholders. This will help us to influence improved understanding and practise in support of BME-led women’s organisations, and leverage further investment in Black and minoritised women and girls.

The impact of Covid-19 on Black and minoritised women and girls

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on Black and minoritised women and girls across the UK. These are women and girls who already faced multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination even before Covid-19, based on factors like race, gender, sexuality, age, class, culture, ability and religion.

A high proportion of Black and minoritised women work in high-risk sectors such as healthcare and many any work in very low-paid jobs or in precarious employment. Others live in overcrowded and poor-quality housing or are at a significant risk of homelessness. Some also live with insecure immigration status and without recourse to public funds.

These disparities are reflected in the organisations led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women and girls. These organisations have seen a significant surge in demand without the funding or resources needed to adequately respond to that need. Our research with WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTRE AND WOMEN’S FUND SCOTLAND found that 74% of organisations told us that funding is their most urgent need; 55% lack the capacity to find suitable funds.

The Impact of Feminist Leadership

How Rights Of Women Give Women Access To Justice

The Impact of Feminist Leadership

11th November 2020

“It came at the right time for me and helped me transition into the CEO role. Personally, I built confidence and belief in myself. Professionally, I have made some amazing contacts and feel part of a wider community of super-women.”
– Attendee

What is Women’s Resource Centre’s Feminist Leadership Programme?

The Feminist Leadership Programme is one of Women’s Resource Centre’s most popular training sessions. Funded by Rosa, women are invited to attend two days of training on topics including emotional intelligence, unconscious bias, project management, and negotiation. They then devise a social action project to turn the theory into activism and develop their work over the weeks that follow.

How does it work?

At the very beginning of 2020, WRC delivered two intensive days of training across London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and Belfast. By the end of day two, attendees had each identified a social issue and devised a small-scale social action project to tackle it. This project is a way for participants to put the learning from the training into practice, demonstrating that social change is possible through collective action. The escalating pandemic meant that face-to-face follow-up sessions were replaced with a series of online training sessios.

“The trainers were extremely knowledgeable on the subject of feminism and the social action project was super fun and fulfilling. It was wonderful for so many women’s organisations to come together and create a useful tool that women from across the country could benefit from.”
– Attendee

What were this year’s social action projects?

London: Women and Poverty during the Pandemic The London group created a podcast and a blog post on COVID-19 and its impact on women and poverty.
Glasgow: Feminist Spotlight Campaign The Glasgow group created a series of blog posts on feminism and anti-racism during COVID-19.
Newcastle: Women’s Empowerment Toolbox The Newcastle group created a toolbox with a rich variety of exercises and tools for training on well-being and increased confidence.
Manchester: Invisible Health Workplace Initiative The Manchester group created a resource on women’s health, specifically aimed at workplaces.
Belfast: Women’s stories and perspectives on the Pandemic The Belfast group created a blog series on women’s perspectives and experiences during COVID-19.

Illustration by Tinuke Illustration (@tinuke.illustration)

“The training programme has increased my confidence, encouraged me to own and be proud of my strengths, try new things, be open and honest. It was amazing to see how we could create a project based on our own ideas and make it happen!”
– Attendee

How did the programme impact women?

Many of the women who attended described how their confidence has increased. “A couple of the group exercises that meant being under the spotlight and coming out of my comfort zone,” explained one attendee. “It left me feeling positively overwhelmed and thinking ‘I Can’ instead of ‘I can’t’. That was powerful.”

Participants also told WRC that the programme had a significant professional impact on them, and how they are continuing to share the learning of the programme. One woman at the beginning of her career said the course made her “think widely about the concept of feminist leadership in terms of shared responsibility versus hierarchical patriarchal leadership” and encouraged her to “apply the flexible and empathetic principles” as she moves through her career.

“Progression is not just about promotions but developing as an anti-racist and feminist inside and outside of work, and the course has advanced both these things for me.”
– Attendee

In terms of career progression, the training helped give one woman the confidence to “get a higher position job in a new organisation”, while it helped another to “assert boundaries, work better in groups, take the lead, and try new things [she] might find scary.”

When WRC asked the women how they planned to use their newly sharpened leadership skills, many cited newfound confidence to “speak up and use [their] voice” as a key development. One said: “I have learnt a lot about working in groups, balancing voices, making sure everyone is heard. I apply this at work in team meetings and in my personal life. I think more about who isn’t being heard.” Another attendee said the Feminist Leadership Programme had encouraged her to take “ownership over [her] agency in applying a leadership style that reflects being a woman in the charity sector.”

“I enjoyed the entire course. The design and structure and how it was facilitated all contributed to the effectiveness of the programme. There was a good combination of exercises, theory, and discussion and it was all inclusive. All delegates were invited to participate during varying points over the two days.
Feedback was provided following the individual and group exercises which was both positive and constructive, this was something I particularly liked as it is not only helpful to hear about where you have done well, but it is also valuable to hear honest and open constructive criticism about how you could improve. I observed the reaction of my fellow delegates at this point and I could see everyone smiling. It was quite exciting.”
– Attendee

Looking forwards

In a society that celebrates individualism and masculine norms and where most leaders are white and male, this programme is a much needed change. This programme demonstrates to participants that they all possess skills and knowledge required in a leader. It celebrates collaboration, solidarity and sisterhood, which has also had a deep effect on the participants. Women’s Resource Centre hopes to build out the programme to offer four to six annual cohorts across the country, as well as a mentorship programme and partnerships with local women’s charities in the host cities.

“The course has helped me to think and reflect more about our position in society, our roles as women in a lot of different aspects and thus the challenges we face. It has opened my eyes. I have thought more around intersectionality which was something I was aware of, but not this specific term. Something that may not have always been at the forefront, is now conscious and something I consider personally and apply practically day to day in both my personal and professional life.”
– Attendee

Find out more about the Feminist Leadership Programme on the Women’s Resource Centre website, and follow the organisation on Twitter.

Imkaan and Rosa Announce BME Fund Grantees

Next Phase Covid 19 Response For BME Led Womens Organisations