Experiences of Services Supporting Women and Girls

“I’m concerned about staff wellbeing and that of the charities working so hard to deliver services, especially the small ones. It’s just got tougher and we are asked to do more, be more and cover more. We have a responsibility to our women but what about the staff? How much can we ask staff to do from their bedrooms and front rooms? Especially if they have young kids?

What about the long term effect on funding and grant-making on the sector? The shift now, and rightly so, is to emergency response to the outbreak, but how will that affect the long-term sustainability of our organisations and how will it change what funding looks like later on?”

- Josephine Knowles, Co- Director, Beyond The Streets

“Our services have had to evolve incredibly quickly over the last few weeks, and thanks to the dedication and creativity of our staff we’ve come up with a range of new ways to provide practical and emotional support to women facing disadvantage in pregnancy and during early motherhood. We’ve established telephone, email and postal-based services for women in the community and in prison, including distance-learning packs for antenatal education and a phone line for those being released from custody. The picture is still changing day by day but I’m so proud of the way our team is responding.”

- Kirsty Kitchin, Director, Birth Companions

“The ramifications of COVID19 are permeating the lives of women we support like sepsis, exacerbating their problems and adding another layer of trauma.

The things I wish were getting more attention right now, pertain to the provision of specialised female-only accommodation. On one hand, action to house women in temporary accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic has been welcomed. However mixed-sex accommodations are ill-suited for women, often containing perpetrators/predators of abuse placing women at significant risk. This calls for a gender-informed response to homelessness provision. Without this, Covid-19 and beyond what will happen to this cohort of women?”

- Michaela Campbell, Project Lead, Kairos WWT

“The greatest challenge for my organisation right now is  continuing to provide an excellent and much-needed service whilst keeping staff safe and well and keeping a sense of collective purpose when we are not together seeing each other as we would. Managing fear of what might happen at worst, to vulnerable women.

The thing I wish was getting more attention is the lack of choice women who street sex work have in their lives. They are poor, disadvantaged and alone.  We are all they have in many cases.  They do this to survive and that survival is even harder now.

Women that we work with tell us that the food and love we are giving them, even though this is remote, is invaluable and it is all they have. They are the most ostracised and we are determined that they will have our continued support and the vital information they need at this unprecedented time.

Well done to everyone who is out there doing a vital service from the recycling people, NHS staff, food shop staff, grocers’ butchers and delivery people. You are risking your lives to help others and we salute you. The staff at One25 have been more than amazing and have held Zoom classes with women, encouraged photo diaries and put together craft packs to help women keep busy.  We are trying to ring women every other day.”

-  Anna Smith, CEO, One25

“We are concerned that there is a barrier for young women who don’t have access to Wi-Fi/ data in accessing their network and support services which means that they aren’t able to be involved in decisions regarding their care. This also leaves them isolated from their families/ peers. We feel it’s essential that young women have access to additional data to ensure that they are able to be involved in meetings and to combat feelings of isolation.

A significant challenge for young women is that a number of services are not running as usual (for example, you are only able to apply for a driving license if you are a key worker). This creates a challenge when trying to open a bank account or access Universal Credit when they can’t prove their ID meaning that young women are not able to be financially independent.

Young women that we are working with report that living in overcrowded housing increases their levels of anxiety and stress. This has been exacerbated due to lockdown, in particular when they or someone in their family shows symptoms meaning that they have to fully isolate with no access to any calm space. We are also concerned that living in overcrowded housing raises the young women’s likelihood of experiencing other forms of harm and that she may be isolated with someone who has perpetrated harm against her.”

- Jess Macdonald, VAWG Lead on behalf of Redthread Young Women’s Workers

“The biggest challenges for us have been establishing ourselves as a new partnership, inducting new staff, promoting and providing our services under lockdown conditions. CouRAGEus practitioners have been working really hard to navigate the additional challenges posed by COVID-19, enabling them to safely engage young women.

Many young women are facing increased risks both related to VAWG and to poor mental health due to being in lockdown with perpetrators and/or removed from outside support networks. At present, our focus is on building links with each other and within our local communities.

We are particularly mindful too of the pain and trauma experienced by Black women and girls (staff and service users), bought into sharp focus by recent events. We are using our intersectional focus, working together within our organisations and with young women to challenge these systems of oppression.”

- Amy Masson, Young Women’s Services Coordinator, Women and Girls Network