More survivors of female violence in Islington are supported and feel safer as a result of the council’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG), according to Islington Councils’ Executive Member for Community Safety.
Speaking at a meeting last Thursday, Cllr Angelo Weekes said the strategy has achieved “exceptional outcomes” as the number of survivors supported by the borough’s specialist VAWG services doubled last year.
He reported the results of a survey of service users, which found that 83% of survivors felt safer, 89% felt more confident, and 94% felt able to recognise abusive behaviour after attending specialist counselling services.
The council introduced their VAWG strategy in 2021, which set out how it would cooperate with community partners to eliminate violence, support survivors and rehabilitate perpetrators over the following five years.
It includes funding counselling services in different languages, which supported 138 survivors in the past year. New family workers in Islington refuges supported 92 young children.
Cllr Weekes said the strategy “has involved significant financial investment to increase and improve VAWG services in the borough”.
One of the major initiatives the council funds is the Samira Project, a partnership between ethnic minority womens’ associations supporting survivors in languages including Arabic, Kurdish and Swahili.
Sawsan Salim, director of the Kurdish and Middle Eastern Women’s Organisation, which is part of the Samira Project, said: “The council helps a lot, but still the project is too small to cover the need of black and minorities women.
“Sometimes we are struggling because of the high demand especially after Covid and the cost of living crisis.”
At the meeting, Cllr Weekes said: “I accept that there is still more work to do to eradicate violence against women and girls… I believe we can continue to make positive change.”
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