Advance Advocacy and Non Violence Community Education
Coordinating and improving domestic abuse services across three London boroughs
The Angelou Partnership is a collaboration of 10 organisations, led and coordinated by Advance Advocacy and Non Violence Community Education (a national charity supporting women and girls who have experienced domestic abuse), to deliver violence against women and girls (VAWG) services. The partnership offers best practice holistic, wraparound support for women and girls in three London boroughs, helping them feel safer and improving wellbeing.
The partnership came into existence when, in 2015, the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster City Council, and Kensington and Chelsea reviewed their service provision and identified a postcode lottery of support, a patchwork of short-term services, siloed working, a focus on risk rather than individual need, and a lack of trauma-informed and culturally appropriate provision.
In response, a shared VAWG Strategic Partnership was developed which brought together the 10 charities with funding from the police, London Mayor’s Office, the NHS, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and the three local authorities. The Angelou Partnership is a multi-agency, intersectional approach, designed to be a single “front door” for survivors, with service users at its heart. It now boasts much greater knowledge and understanding of issues such as LGBT+ needs, honour-based abuse, gang-related violence, sexual violence, female genital mutilation, substance abuse, mental health problems, and those with no recourse to public funds.
During its 10 years, Angelou has worked with women and girls over 12,000 times, helping them to feel safer and to improve their wellbeing during and after abuse.
In 2023-24, the partnership reached 1,146 survivors, at a cost of just £511 each. The outcomes in the year were:
- 98% of women were at reduced risk.
- 97% reported a reduction in abuse due to support and advice received.
- 97% of the women supported reported feeling safer as a result of the support they received.
- 95% of women have increased confidence in reporting abuse and where to access help and support.
Advance has also consulted with interested parties across the UK and beyond to share learnings and assist the development of similar partnership models.
Charity Awards judge Katie Ghose, CEO of KIDS, said the programme demonstrated “multiple examples of collaboration in one ‘wrapper’ which is excellent to see, including with commissioners and by and for services”.
Farah Nazeer, chief executive at Women’s Aid, said: “This is one of those programme that shouldn’t be innovative – it should just be the way it happens – but actually, the additional labour to make this happen is immense. It just wouldn’t have happened without extreme lobbying and advocacy to enable this kind of partnership to emerge, so I thought it was really innovative.”
CC Reg. no. 1086873
