rainbow flower

Racism and other intersecting barriers to accessing safety and support

We need to work actively to make spaces and services safe and inclusive for women from all backgrounds and situations, and remove barriers to support due to migrant status, ethnicity, language, neurodiversity, disability and other aspects of lived experience.

rainbow flower

Racism and other intersecting barriers to accessing safety and support

We need to work actively to make spaces and services safe and inclusive for women from all backgrounds and situations, and remove barriers to support due to migrant status, ethnicity, language, neurodiversity, disability and other aspects of lived experience.

Communities like ours need to work actively to provide safe spaces for women who have experienced domestic/sexual violence often in addition to immigration abuse, harmful practices such as FGM, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, trafficking and HBV/A perpetrated through varying cultural and social lenses by intimate partners, family members and or community members. A safe space may be a specialist service, or a respectful and anti-racist organisation providing help around domestic abuse. A safe space is often needed to address other barriers, particularly for women who are destitute and homeless, or living in unstable or unsafe housing without support networks. Safe spaces are needed by migrant women who also have complex immigration issues, no recourse to public funds, face racial discrimination and harassment, hate crime and economic exploitation. Being trauma informed also means properly listening to and hearing women’s and girls’ lived experience, in all its diverse, cultural and unique aspects, and shaping our understanding of safe spaces accordingly.

Quotation marks

This service has saved my mental health and has provided a safe service whilst helping with coping mechanisms for the future.

- Lena

Latest news

Easter break

April Holiday Break for VOICES

During the  school holidays VOICES will be closed from Monday 3rd April and will reopen on Tuesday 11th April. Group Programmes will resume the week starting 17th April, depending on the group, and we will let you know about your groups separately. Below are some numbers of other agencies that might be helpful, but in…

paulton church event

A Fundraising Evening at the Holy Trinity in Paulton. 29th March 2023 7:30pm

Holy Trinity Church in Paulton are kindly having a fundraising evening with refreshments in support of VOICES and people recovering from Domestic Violence. All welcome! Wednesday 29th of March at 7:30pm. Holy Trinity Church, Paulton, Bristol BA39 7LG. We hope to see you there.

The Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales – Festival of Practice

The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Festival of Practice

Our CEO Ursula Lindenberg will be at The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Festival of Practice on the 28th and 29th of March, taking part in a panel discussion about commissioning of emotional support for individuals who have experienced domestic abuse, alongside Sue Penna, who developed the Recovery Toolkit and Natalie Collins who created the Own My…