This year marks a significant milestone for Abianda, as we celebrate our tenth anniversary of increasing the independence and agency of young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence.
Over the past decade, we have delivered direct services across London (at our largest, working with over 400 young women and girls a year), whilst taking our training to a national audience of thousands of professionals.
We are really proud of our national profile, and our ability to input into systems and policy change conversations at a local and national level - often punching above our weight! Here are some of the activities that we are particularly proud of over the years:
Contributed to Florence Eshalomi’s AM, report ‘Gang Associated Girls: Supporting young women at risk’ with Abianda’s specialist work with girls and young women being represented in Parliament;
Bringing young women together with policing colleagues to address their experiences of criminal exploitation through pan-London training of the MET’s Child Exploitation Teams;
Working with research colleagues at the University of Bedfordshire to bring young people and police colleagues together on the CSE Policing Knowledge Hub Project, support policing responses to child sexual exploitation (CSE), other forms of sexual abuse and associated vulnerabilities in adolescence;
Abianda gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on the 10-year drugs strategy and county lines;
We were an Expert Advisory Group member for the Young Women’s Justice Project (We are Agenda & SCYJ). This project has had a specific focus on young adult women (up to 25) who are in contact with the criminal justice system, including the experiences of girls when they transition into adult services when they turn 1;
We were an Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) Peer Reviewer for the Tackling Child Exploitation Programme in relation to the national Practice Principles;
Abianda advised on the forthcoming Disrupting County Lines Policing Strategy for 2024 to 2027, for the National County Lines Coordination Centre. Due for publication later in 2024.
Abianda submitted evidence to The Commission on Young Lives and Manchester Metropolitan University’s joint research into the extent and impact of violence and exploitation of girls and young women, including around criminal gangs;
Abianda advised on amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, joining Dame Vera Baird (Victims Commissioner for England and Wales) for an intimate round table discussion on the theme of Criminal Exploitation, Gangs and County Lines;
Training 1500 professionals a year on issues relating to young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation;
Moving away from the discriminatory language of ‘gangs’ and closer to language that is reflective of the harm and abuse experienced by young women and girls;
Being a delivery partner on MOPAC’s Rescue and Response service. Working alongside Safer London and St Giles Trust on a 6-year, pan-London service for young people affected by county lines. The first project of its kind, with Abianda ensuring that young women and girls could access services, and collectively pushing forward the national understanding of county lines and its impact on the lives of young people;
Being a chosen delivery partner on behalf of Durham University’s Contextual Safeguarding research programme to deliver their contextual safeguarding training to a national audience;
Being a community partner of Arsenal FC and Adidas’s No More Red Campaign;
Speaking at multiple conferences and events, such as:
"Shaping Tomorrow: Creating Safe Spaces for Girls and Women" conference in Cardiff, where we shared our contextual approach and location-based interventions when working with girls and young women;
the National Combatting Gangs, Violence and County Lines Conference, sharing our trauma-informed practice, and how our services embody trauma-informed principles when working alongside young women;
Healthcare Conference UK's Safeguarding Adolescents and Young Adults conference, where we spoke about young women who experience extra-familial harm associated with county lines and criminal exploitation, including barriers to accessing support and how to improve practice and safeguarding.
Our international efforts have included:
presenting to social work and policing professionals in Stockholm, Sweden at Intergrationforum's 'gang' criminality conference, where we shared our approach to working with young women and girls;
bi-annual presentation to PhD policy scholars from across Europe through Oxford University's Europaeum programme, exploring international policy and its implications for girls and young women who experience criminal exploitation and violence;
A key delivery partner on the University of Bedfordshire’s project, Life skills, leadership, limitless potential: Supporting children and young people affected by sexual violence in Europe by strengthening and facilitating participatory practice, developing training and participatory tools for European service providers.
Over the past ten years, Abianda has been one of the only organisations in England with a sole focus on working with girls and young women affected by criminal exploitation and ‘gangs’. We have traversed unchartered territory in amplifying their experiences and voices. With our friends and partners, we have been instrumental in getting the issues of young women and girls on the map when thinking about the system-wide response to young women and criminal exploitation associated with ‘gangs’ and county lines.
I would like to pay particular attention and give thanks to the incredible Abianda team (past and present) who, over the years, have worked tirelessly in support of young women and girls. Without fail, all of them have been driven by the pursuit of justice and equality for the young women we support. Our team is our greatest resource. We attract brilliant people who have shared values and who are truly invested in meaningful change for girls and young women.
Looking to the future
With ten years under our belt, now is the time to do something different. Over the past year, we have done important reflective and strategic work, drawing on our learning over the past ten years, the voices of our team and of young women. We are now about to embark on a new journey following the launch of our strategy for 2024 - 2027. This strategy is about consolidation - seeing us deliberately slowing our activity and reducing direct delivery at scale for a period of time.
This might seem counterintuitive when we know the needs of young women and girls are bigger than ever - but we know it’s the right thing to do. This strategic shift reflects Abianda's commitment to quality over quantity. It also reflects the significant impact of the external climate and global shifts on small voluntary organisations. We’re in a political and fiscal environment where organisations like ours are being asked to do more with less, and pick up the support for communities that should be held by the state. This increased demand can be corrosive to infrastructure and people, and we have chosen to step out of the reactive and ‘firefight’ mode that can run organisations into the ground. We want, and need, to be here into the future. So by reducing the volume of direct delivery of services for young women and girls, we are giving Abianda’s system some breathing space, getting back to our participatory roots, to ensure that every interaction going forward is meaningful, impactful, and sustainable in the long term.
One of the outcomes of this has been our decision to step back from pan-London services for a period of time, something we have been delivering as part of the MOPAC-funded Rescue and Response Service over the last six years. As this project comes to an end this summer, we are proud of all we, and our delivery partners LB Brent, Safer London and St Giles Trust, have achieved for young people.
At the core of Abianda's new strategy lie three objectives:
1. Enhancing Safety: Abianda is committed to increasing the safety of girls and young women affected by criminal exploitation and violence. By focusing on targeted interventions and strategic partnerships, we want to create safer places and spaces, services and systems for young women and girls.
2. Ensuring Quality: With a renewed focus on quality standards, Abianda is setting the bar higher for its provision of services. Everything we do will be delivered in line with our participatory principles and solution-focused practice, with young women’s voices at its heart.
3. Demonstrating Impact: We are committed to providing tangible evidence of our impact. By developing our monitoring and evaluation practice, we will be in a position of strength to develop and grow our direct services and training offer whilst attracting funding and support to sustain our work.
We are really excited to start the strategic period with a clear vision for our organisation and our total efforts to bring about independence and agency for girls and young women.
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