Hackney Women’s Forum – proposals for tackling domestic

violence and violence against women & girls

Marika Mason

23rd March 2010

Two areas of focus

Women’s equality – involvement in updating Hackney’s Gender Equality Scheme; gathered evidence base to prove women affected by different forms of violence

Violence against women – seeking to integrate in policy and practice all forms of violence experienced by women and girls

6 P’s for ending violence against women and girls

1. Perspective

2. Policy

3. Prevention

4. Provision

5. Protection

6. Prosecution

1. Perspective

Domestic violence/VAW is a gender equality issue.

DV/VAW is a violation of human rights and should not be tolerated, i.e. zero tolerance.

DV/VAW affects all members of the community regardless of background.

All forms of violence are interlinked.

2. Policy

Welcome the opportunity to contribute to its development of Hackney’s VAWG strategy, which includes the 6 P’s.

Will participate in multiagency partnerships, e.g. LBH Policy & Oper. Strategy group

Working with LBH Equalities Unit to ensure VAWG is included in the updated Gender Equality Scheme.

Work with partners on devising multi-agency training programme.

3. Prevention

Is the weakest part of the UK’s response to VAWG with little investment

We believe the root cause of VAWG needs to be tackled gender inequality; by promoting women’s equality and children’s rights

Will work in partnerships with members to develop proposals for prevention work in the community and in the schools.

Will use impact measurement tools to demonstrate the projects the social return on investment to stakeholders.

4. Provision

We will continue to advocate for specialist services for women in the women’s voluntary sector, which support most women who do not report.

Single sex services are lawful where there is a need to preserve decency or privacy, e.g. DV refugees, rape crisis centres

A third of local authorities do not have specialist support services for DV survivors and existing services are fragile. We are concerned about the future of DV services in Hackney given the recession and public sector cuts.

5. Protection

We will continue to advocate for the protection of women who have no recourse to public funds. Women and girls should be protected on a non-discrimination basis.

Conclusion

We will support the development of programmes that will contribute to reducing the levels of DV/VAWG in Hackney.

We will implement impact measurement tools to help demonstrate the added value of the VCS.

We will continue to work in partnership to contribute to policy developments in the borough and share good practice which meets the needs of people experiencing DV and other forms of violence.