Action on services for BAMER women victims of violence

THAMES Valley Police has released a report on its ongoing project to make violence against women and girls services more accessible to black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee (BAMER) people.

The Home Office-funded project force involves TVP coordinating with charities and service providers, including those in West Berkshire, to raise awareness around issues of abuse.

So far, specialist support workers across the region have engaged 33 community groups and 68 clients on a one-to-one basis.

These people come from 37 ethnic backgrounds, with religious and cultural functions among the engagement events.

The report highlights the campaign’s successes, including improvements in service delivery across language and cultural barriers.

Police and crime commissioner Anthony Stansfeld said: “We have over 134,000 non-native-English speakers speaking more than 20 languages in the Thames Valley.

“We know from the uptake of services that many women from BAMER communities who have experienced violence such as domestic abuse will not be receiving support.

“There are many reasons for this and this project has been successful in giving us an understanding of the needs of these communities, as well as helping to drive improvements in service delivery.

“The work undertaken has identified challenges and successes to inform best practice and has begun to initiate change.

“However, this is just the beginning.

“The BAMER – now BAED, black and ethnically diverse – Partnership Board, set up in delivering the project, will now continue with an action plan to address recommendations from the evaluation.”

To view the report, https://bit.ly/3m9b5Oi

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