Background

Between July 2016 and June 2018, Solace Women’s Aid and Shpresa Programme delivered the Empower Women project to asylum seeking, refugee and migrant women affected by gender based violence (GBV).

We have developed this toolkit to share our learning from this project. We think it is important to share our learning in this way, because:

• There were few available services for women from new migrant communities fleeing violence
• Services were often unaware of the particular needs and experiences of new migrant women
• Even where services were available, they were difficult to access or did not offer the appropriate services for women from new migrant communities
• Funding cuts have resulted in fewer services for all those affected by GBV, but these cuts have disproportionately affected black, minority ethnic and refugee women, including women from new migrant communities, whose needs are often not seen or acknowledged.
• Domestic abuse has worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated the lack of access to services for migrant women

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