Advance delivers holistic, survivor-centred services to improve the lives of women and children who experience domestic abuse. Our motto is ‘Saving lives, changing lives’ because we help women get out of unsafe situations and, once the crisis has passed, empower them to take control of their lives and flourish.
Our work throughout statutory and non-statutory settings – such as prisons, hospitals and police stations – as well as our partnership projects ensure all barriers to women leading safe, stable lives are addressed. This is our coordinated community response.
As well as service delivery, we engage the entire community to develop a shared understanding of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and change systemic and social norms contributing to this.
We continue to build networks locally, regionally and nationally to help achieve our aim of supporting and empowering women. This includes being represented on the Home Office Violence Against Women and Girls Stakeholder Group and VAWG Boards, the London VAWG Consortium, Community Safety Partnership Boards and other local, regional and national partnerships.
The Angelou Partnership
Our Angelou Partnership is a VAWG service delivery model, led and coordinated by Advance, made up of ten voluntary organisations. Each partner offers a different kind of specialist support, such as services tailored to BAME and LGBT+ communities. When a woman is referred to the Angelou Partnership, she not only gets a broad VAWG service, but also specialist services that identify needs underlying and often feeding into her experience.
We built the partnership to offer a range of specialisms from different organisations because every woman’s experience is multi-faceted and unique. As Peter Kelly, chief executive of Galop, an Angelou partner, said at a recent event: ‘The survivor’s identity always matters. Sexuality, gender identity, colour, disability and class all impact an experience of domestic abuse.’ This joined up approach ensures that no stone is left unturned in a woman’s journey.
Via this partnership, Advance has delivered specialist and intersectional services in Central and West London boroughs to more than 3,000 women and children each year since 2015. The Angelou Partnership also provides advice, helping professionals and practitioners such as doctors, midwives and police officers identify domestic abuse and refer cases accordingly.
Through cross training and information sharing, developing protocols and raising community awareness, we deliver a coherent integrated response to survivors, while recognising each partner’s expertise, goals and different communities’ specific needs.
The Angelou Partnership Came together on the 11th March 2021 to explore the principles, share learnings and propose best-practice models in developing and commissioning a multi-agency VAWG response to address the intersectional needs of survivors of abuse and the long-lasting and far-reaching impact on their lives, whilst holding perpetrators to account.
The benefits for service provision for local
authorities are:
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Provision of a single coordinated, seamless service
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Quality, empowering, practical advocacy and support responsive to survivor needs
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Created, sustained or increased service provision in specialist areas
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Development of a professional network of organisations to support each other
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Shared expertise and learning, supporting each other’s work and thereby helping survivors effectively.
The benefits of the AP to service users and potential service users include:
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New or broadened service provision that was not there before at all
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Contacting a broader VAWG service can still lead to specialist provision, meeting their needs, including young people, BAME and LGBT+ communities.
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Access to additional services provided by AP members, funded through other sources