BAME women-led organisations at risk of closure due to increased demand over lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic has exploited existing inequalities for staff working to protect domestic abuse and violence victims, with Black and minority women-led organisations facing significant impacts in comparison.

Jasmine from the specialist organisation for Black and minoritised women and girls, The Angelou Centre, said: “We’ve particularly seen an increase in new referrals, seeing between a 30-40% increase in the first lockdown.” Upon continuing the lockdown into the new year, Jasmine commented this was now a 65% increase in new referrals.

The Women’s Resource centre published a report on The Crisis of COVID-19 and UK Women’s Charities: “There is significantly less confidence that Black and minoritised women-led organisations will survive the COVID-19 crisis, particularly as they were in a weakened position at the outset.” The women that these organisations became responsible for required higher safety measures due to them becoming higher risk of domestic violence exposure and increased poverty levels. Now, as Britain enters the second stage of our roadmap out of lockdown, fulfilment of these needs has still not been met.

The Covid-19 outbreak has disproportionately impacted Women in the African diaspora in Manchester, compounding the already existent health inequalities, say the Mama Health and Poverty Partnership (MHaPP) and Women’s Resource Centre (WRC). Image from @whywomen on Twitter

Chief executive of Welsh Women’s Aid, Sara Kirkpatrick, at their annual conference, said: “The pandemic has amplified the inequities in our structural and social systems that disproportionately impacts on the safety of women and girls in their homes and communities.

“This means understanding the needs of women living in rural areas who may have limited access to broadband, identifying the appropriate support for women living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, ensuring that migrant women have equal access to support when fleeing abuse.”

Alexander Orah, whose mother has been working throughout the pandemic with London Black Women’s Project, commented on the strain that increased demand has had: “My mother would work longer hours with little rest, there is a lot of pressure on the women’s sector currently anyway, but adding race and other marginalising factors in the mix, there is a clear lack of balance in funding and support given.” Alexander stresses the importance of not overlooking staff’s needs, especially those responsible for protecting Black women. When asked if his mother felt under supported Alexander commented: 'The fault does not lie with the charity, it is the outside factors which are detrimental. My mother only remains struggling with work because of the lack of support these organisations are getting from the government.'

With the number of women whose situation has worsened over lockdown, organisations are struggling to sustain funding for these services. In their open letter to Boris Johnson, Agenda, an alliance of over 70 charities and organisations, said: “nearly a third (32%) of organisations have reported that they are not confident about their future sustainability.”

Agenda interviewed 150 services responsible for supporting the most

disadvantaged women, including domestic violence and abuse victims, and specialist services for Black and ethnic minority women.

The results showed that 95% of respondents agreed that the pandemic had increased mental health problems, while 76 per cent reported increased demand for their services since March 2020. Black and minoritised women-led organisations face significantly less time to raise funding due to an intense shift of service user needs. This means increased workload and a lack of funding which threatens the future closure of these much-needed organisations.

Infographic highlighting the key findings from Women's Resource Centre (WRC) survey: The Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on the UK’s Sector for Black and Minoritised Women

Looking at this in the longer term, BAME women-led organisations forecast a growing risk of violence against women and exposure to coronavirus whilst having an uncertain future of sustaining themselves. The Women’s Resource Centre recommends both the Government and funders provide dedicated funds and specialist support to protect organisations working with some of the UK’s most vulnerable women.

Click here to view an interactive map of UK based BAME Women-Led Organisations.