Vital charities awarded £10,000 from dedicated Women and Girls Fund
Four vital Birmingham and Black Country charities supporting women who have experienced domestic abuse, sexual violence, modern slavery and complex challenges have each been awarded £10,000 from a dedicated fund to support women and girls across the West Midlands.
Heart of England Community Foundation announced it has awarded £10,000 to Birmingham and Solihull Women's Aid, WE:ARE Women’s Empowerment and Recovery Educators, Black Country Women’s Aid and Anawim – Birmingham’s Centre for Women from its Women and Girls Fund.
The Foundation is also backing calls for the government to create a specific fund which supports women and girls nationally.
The announcement was made on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which marks the start of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence and calls for global solidarity to end violence against women and girls everywhere.
The £100,000 fund was established to provide donation to a range of women and girls projects across the region – with 10 charities all receiving £10,000.
Poignantly, all three of the charities in Birmingham will be using the funds to cover the cost of core services, staffing and launching new vital support services.
Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid (BSWA), which provides a wide range of specialist domestic abuse (DA) support services and activities for women and children in the region, while also providing training to professionals including GPs, social workers and the police, will be using the funds for core running costs.
WE:ARE Women’s Empowerment and Recovery Educators, in Birmingham, provides a safe and supportive environment for women who have been subjected to domestic abuse, offering a range of trauma-informed programmes and workshops and will be also be putting the donation towards core costs as well as workshops and activities.
Black Country Women’s Aid, based in Sandwell, helps victims and survivors from the West Midlands to escape from violence, cope with trauma and rebuild their lives and will be using the funding to support up to 10 girls aged 11 to 19 at risk of offending.
Anawim – Birmingham's Centre for Women offers gender-informed, trauma-responsive wraparound support to enable women to reach their potential, providing drop-in services, counselling, courses, crisis intervention, advocacy and other practical resources.
The charity has used the funding to help launch a clothes bank project which will give women the opportunity to choose clothes with dignity.
Joy Doal, CEO of Anawim, said: “We’re extremely grateful to the Heart of England Community Foundation for this grant.
“We previously had a charity shop in Moseley but uneconomical to sustain, so we have been able to use the funding to launch a new pre-loved hub at our main centre.
“The women we support are given vouchers and can choose their own clothes, try them on and buy these with dignity using the vouchers.
“It’s a really nice experience and compliments all of the other services we offer. We have incredible feedback from the women we work with who have said that the services we provide have been life-changing, and in some cases life-saving.
“Dedicated funding for women and girls is absolutely vital, and although the government has committed to halving violence against women and girls, this hasn’t been backed up by funding which is a real problem.
“Statistics show that one in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lives, so it’s an epidemic.
“Our vision is to see a society where women and girls are treated equally and free to live their lives without glass ceilings, and it’s clear that more dedicated funding is needed to achieve this.”
Tina Hindocha, pre-loved hub manager and volunteer co-ordinator at Anawim, added: “Often the women we work with haven’t got the confidence to go into high street shops or maybe can’t get transport there, but we offer an accessible, safe location where they feel comfortable.
“I’m so grateful we’ve been given the funding to launch our pre-loved hub. Even after such a short space of time, it’s already having an impact on the lives of the women we work with and seeing them leave with a smile is incredible.”
The Foundation launched the Women and Girls Fund after identifying a significant decline in the funding available specifically for organisations supporting women and girls.
After seeding it with £50,000 from its own funds, the Foundation opened it for donations and raised its £100,000 target within just four months.
Tina Costello OBE, Chief Executive of the Foundation, said: “While things have improved, it’s clear that we still have an incredibly long way to go for women and girls to achieve equality.
“That’s why I’m extremely pleased that the Foundation has distributed £100,000 to organisations across the West Midlands which are providing vital support services to women and girls.
“While all of the organisations we have awarded funding to are slightly different, all of them are helping to create better lives and drive change.
“Although the funds have been distributed, our work doesn’t stop here, and we will continue to support organisations which help women and girls on a local level. But I would love to see the government recognise that we need a national women and girls fund to help organisations right across the UK.”
