HOPE Training and Consultancy, supported by HARM Network, Dr Olumide Adisa and Sarah Wigley Associates, are sparking discussions about domestic and sexual abuse and its impact on survivors in Black and Minority Ethnic Communities during Covid-19 through regular Zoom calls. The calls are hosted by Meena Kumari, bringing together frontline workers, activists, survivors, academics and policy makers.
Jo Todd, Respect’s CEO, joined in on the call last Friday to discuss perpetrator work and the importance of understanding the communities we work in.
One of the key points Jo wants to see addressed involves filling diversity gaps in perpetrator research. Studies have been conducted in the US measuring differences in success rates between mainstream perpetrator programmes facilitated by marginalised people, and grassroots targeted groups. However, there is a huge lack of perpetrator research being conducted in Black, Asian and Minoritised communities in the UK.
She explains that part of the risk management process should involve understanding the people that live in the communities in which we work. Jo is keen to find ways to better address this topic by directly working within communities. She points to the success of the Al Aman Group in London, as an example of how a mainstream organisation can work within communities. While it was run by the Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP), the group worked in Arabic communities by working with Imam’s and Mosque’s.
Another item Jo wants to address is how to make the workforce more diverse. While the women’s sector is quite diverse, the perpetrator service provisions sector is still predominantly white. She wants to discuss ways to shift the workforce to better reflect the variety of communities we support.
The calls are every other Friday. On Friday the 7th of August The Men’s Advice Line will be speaking on the topic of male victims in the next of HOPE’s calls on Domestic Abuse within Black, African, Asian and other Minority Ethnic Heritage communities during Covid-19.
For more information about HOPE and their training courses, check out their website https://hopetraining.co.uk/
*Footnote: This successful community response model ran for 15 years before being shut down by budget cuts last year.
