Women from ethnic minorities being trained up to fix 'postcode lottery' of abuse support services in the East
"We need culturally responsive domestic abuse and sexual violence support" – Dr Mirna Guha, who's leading the training.
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is training up women from ethnic minority backgrounds to help plug a hole in the 'postcode lottery' of support services for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence (DASV) for women from those communities across the East.
Regionally, there is a significant shortage of support services provided by and for women- in fact, there's only one in the East; the Phoebe Centre in Ipswich, Suffolk.
Dr Mirna Guha- Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Deputy Head of the School for Humanities and Social Sciences at ARU- is leading initiatives to address this by fostering racially diverse leadership within services that tackle violence against women and girls.
Dr Guha told us it's a 'postcode lottery' of support and that "where you live and who you are- your racial and cultural background as part of that- determines the access that you have to the kind of support you need."
Alongside Dr Katherine Allen from the University of Suffolk, they recently established a Community of Practice for Diverse Women Leaders and, last week, introduced the Leadership Model for Emerging Leaders at an event in London, which brought together a diverse group of women leaders from voluntary and national statutory organisations, including the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Dr Guha told us, "We've developed this leadership program for women from diverse communities.
"We're offering training on DASV support, network opportunities, and, so far, we've had 25 women join us from across the region.
"We're really looking forward to growing this membership further."
Following her pilot study focusing on Asian women in Cambridgeshire which showed the need for DASV services to be more culturally responsive, Dr Guha collaborated with Peterborough Women’s Aid to secure Home Office funding for the first ‘by and for’ provision for Asian women experiencing domestic abuse in the county.
The Dahlia Project is delivered entirely by a team of newly recruited Asian women from the British Pakistani community in Peterborough and is governed by a board of Asian men and women.
Dr Guha is currently evaluating The Dahlia Project, which has received around 200 referrals since launching in 2023, including from women of African Caribbean, Middle Eastern and South-east Asian backgrounds, highlighting its importance to different racial minority groups.
She highlighted some of the barriers to DASV support women from these communities face, such as 'stigma around divorce'- with a pressure to 'stay and work on marriages'.
"A large number of these survivors don't want to go to shelter straight away- which is often a solution that is offered to them.
"This is because, once they leave their communities and go to shelter, that's it.
"The link to their community is gone, not just for themselves but for their children as well.
"These communities for them are their culture and heritage and they don't want to lose that link.
"Victims who are on migrants visas are really scared of being deported- which is why they don't want to approach the police, city or county councils, because they're scared that their dependency on their spouse for a visa will be used against them.
"They are also small, diaspora communities- they're not as well established as, say, in London or Birmingham.
"So there is a certain sense of 'we need to protect ourselves' or 'we need to grow as a community', and anything negative that comes out, there is a silence around it.
"They are conscious of how they are represented to wider society and in wider society."
Additionally, further research carried out in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Suffolk last year by Dr Guha and Dr Allen, identified the need for representative and culturally responsive leadership to ensure organisations delivering DASV services are welcoming for diverse members of staff, and the support provided is accessible for victims-survivors.
It also underlined the need for practitioners from diverse backgrounds to have access to role models and networking opportunities to help combat professional isolation.
Dr Guha added, "In the East, we've had global majority and diverse communities living here since the 1950s, but the leadership of woman from these backgrounds in regional politics and policy making is quite low."
The Emerging Leaders event in London, which also featured a speech by Superintendent Jasvinder Kaur, Domestic Abuse Lead at Suffolk Constabulary and co-founder of the National Women of Colour in Policing UK, highlighted the success of The Dahlia Project and demonstrated how the Peterborough scheme could be replicated in regions similarly affected by the postcode lottery.
Dr Guha said, “Celebrating and supporting Black and racialised women’s leadership in organisations that address violence against women and girls is crucial.
"The network we have set up aims to accelerate the leadership of minoritised women and make domestic abuse services inclusive and responsive to the complex needs of victims-survivors from different backgrounds.
“Evidence from my research will support efforts by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner to advocate for a dedicated national ‘by and for’ funding pot.
"This would ensure minoritised victims-survivors across England and Wales receive high-quality support, regardless of their location.
"The Dahlia Project is making a real difference in Cambridgeshire, but we need more projects like it across the country to end this postcode lottery of provision.”
The Community of Practice will be hosted online through Anglia Ruskin University, with the goal of evolving into a Regional Advisory Body to influence future practice, research and policy design affecting victims-survivors.
Dr Guha’s work ‘Nothing about us without us’: Investigating the impact of the leadership of ethnic minority women on domestic abuse service provision in East England has received Medical Research Council UK Prevention Research Partnership VISION funding.
If you're suffering from sexual or domestic abuse and need support, The Phoebe Centre is an Ipswich-based registered charity that offers specialist advice, information, casework, advocacy and support and counselling services to black and ethnic minority women and children.
You can find a link to their website here.
Alternatively, you can contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline here.