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SERVICES

Training

We deliver specialist training for services working with victim-survivors of domestic abuse from ethnically diverse communities.

All our training is delivered with facilitators from affected communities and this makes learning very powerful. Our technical domestic abuse training is delivered with specialists who have frontline experience working in the domestic abuse sector. We  have worked  with a wide range of services, including domestic abuse workers, police officers, social workers and company employees. 

We can adapt the training time as needed, so please contact us to discuss your team’s training needs.

Our training costs £250 online and £300 in person (based on a 90 minutes session). We are occasionally able to support small groups without budgets with workshops free of charge.

90 Minutes

Transnational Marriage Abandonment

Our Transnational Marriage Abandonment (TMA) workshop supports your team with learning on this complex form of domestic abuse. TMA or “bride abandonment” (as most victims are women) happens when husbands deliberately abandon their brides in another country some time after the marriage, leaving them at risk of poverty, violence, exploitation, destitution and social stigma.

  • Why bride abandonment happens

  • Laws to support abandoned spouses on current/expired partner visas
  • Barriers to support
  • How professionals and services can help in prevention
  • Supporting abandoned spouses

Intersectionality, protected characteristics and working with diverse groups

 

Our Intersectionality, Protected Characteristics and Working with Diverse Groups workshop supports your team to take an intersectional approach in your interactions with diverse communities. The workshop provides a framework that you can adapt to your own professional environment or support service to meet more nuanced requirements in an increasingly complex world.

  • The origins of intersectional thinking
  • The Wheel of Power and Privilege as a tool to recognise barriers to services and support
  • How intersectionality overlaps and combines with other frameworks (such as the Equality Act and Protected Characteristics)
  • Recognising intersectional needs, addressing culture, race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, class, victim/survivor, socio-economic background, political power, marginalisation, education, skills, employment, language, societal roles, disability, discrimination etc.
  • Exploring strategies and ways of working that support intersectional needs

No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and Domestic Abuse

Our No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and Domestic Abuse workshop supports frontline practitioners and professionals working with migrant groups. Victims of abuse who have a NRPF condition attached to their immigration status face multiple barriers to accessing support and safety from abuse. Perpetrators often tell migrant women that they have no rights in the UK, that no-one will help them, instilling fears of deportation and children’s removal from family care.
NRPF victims of abuse who do not have children in their care (and who do not have care needs arising from a disability, illness or mental health condition), face added difficulties due to significant gaps in service provision.
Without professional support to help navigate services and pathways, victims with NRPF can find themselves alone facing homelessness and destitution. Our workshop will equip professionals with tools to respond positively to disclosures of abuse by victims affected by the NRPF condition. The training will explore multiple responses and resources, developing professionals’ understanding of a complex immigration and services landscape and how to navigate it.

  • The NRPF rule and to whom this applies
  • How the NRPF rule impacts victims and families, entitlement to domestic abuse services and homelessness pathways
  • Services and support restrictions
  • Legal mechanisms available
  • Agencies for referrals, other support and signposting

Working with families with spiritual beliefs

Our workshop on Working with families with spiritual beliefs explores the dynamics of abuse when families believe in black magic, jinn or the power of marabouts. Spiritual abuse is characterised by a systematic pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour in a religious, spiritual, faith or belief context. Our workshop will support practitioners to recognise spiritual abuse and safeguard victims.

  • Beliefs in jinn, black magic and the power of marabouts
  • Warning signs
  • How spiritual beliefs impact behaviour
  • How to have conversations with victims and perpetrators
  • Safeguarding victims of abuse
  • Support available

Supporting sexual violence services to reach women from minoritised communities

 

Our New Bridges (Services) workshop supports sexual violence services to reach women from minoritised communities. All our workshops are delivered with facilitators from minoritised communities and we can deliver this workshop in partnership with a facilitator from your service.

We deliver an equivalent workshop for communities to help them reach sexual violence services, hence creating a “bridge” between communities and services.

  • Barriers and cultural norms that can prevent women accessing sexual violence services
  • Types of sexual violence that can be suffered by specific groups, such as ‘honour’-based crime and forced marriage
  • External barriers to abuse services providing effective support for women from minoritised communities.
  • Best practice and solutions to breaking barriers and creating bridges between victims and services

FGM Safeguarding Training

Our FGM Safeguarding Training supports your team to recognise the indicators of FGM to identify girls at risk and survivors. Your team will understand the communities who may be affected by FGM and  build the confidence to sensitively safeguard and support young people.

  • What is FGM?
  • Harms and reasons
  • Law
  • Prevalence 
  • Warning signs that FGM might be planned 
  • Warning signs that FGM might have occurred 
  • Tools
  • Safeguarding and mandatory reporting
  • Tips for talking to survivors 
  • What we can do
  • Helplines
Art activism

Labia Pulling/Stretching Safeguarding Training

Workshop delivered in partnership with Project Salama

Our Labia pulling/stretching workshop supports your team to understand a cultural practice affecting some African and South Pacific communities, where the labia minora is manually stretched. This practice is often done for aesthetic reasons or as a rite of passage but is a form of child abuse. The workshop is delivered in partnership with Project Salama facilitators from affected communities. Your team will be supported to spot the signs and respond to concerns in a way that is proportionate and sensitive.

  • What is labia stretching?
  • Harms and reasons
  • Law
  • Prevalence 
  • Warning signs that labia stretching might be occurring
  • Tools
  • Safeguarding and mandatory reporting
  • Tips for talking to survivors 
  • What we can do
  • Helplines

‘Honour’-Based Abuse (HBA) and Forced Marriage Safeguarding Training

Our ‘Honour’-Based Abuse (HBA) and Forced Marriage Safeguarding Training supports your team to recognise the indicators of HBA, including forced marriage, to identify children at risk and survivors. Your team will understand the “honour codes” in affected communities and  build the confidence to sensitively safeguard and support young people.

 

  • What is HBA?
  • What is forced marriage?
  • Harms and reasons
  • Prevalence of HBA/forced marriage
  • The law on HBA/forced marriage
  • Warning signs that a forced marriage might be planned
  • Warning signs that a forced marriage might have taken place
  • Safeguarding
  • Tips for talking to survivors
  • What we can do
  • Helplines

Online Imagery Safeguarding Training

Our Online Imagery Safeguarding Training supports your team to navigate the complex world of social media and its impact on  body image and relationships. Your team will understand the pressures and features of the current online world,  in relation to body image, mainstream pornography and colourism, to build the confidence to sensitively safeguard and support young people.

  • The landscape of the online world
  • Body image, social media and marketing
  • Pornography and unrealistic expectations
  • Key laws 
  • Practical tips for tech
  • Tips for conversations 
  • Support for young people / safeguarding