A partnership of women’s and girls organisations have secured £2,022,528 of funding from the National Lottery for their work across Leeds.
Women’s Lives Leeds, which includes Beeston’s Asha Neighbourhood Project, launched last Tuesday (24 May 2016) with an event at Leeds Civic Hall, hosted by Jo Jo of Capital FM. Cllr Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council introduced the project to the city of Leeds. 200 women and girls attended from across the partnership.
Cllr Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council, said:
“I am delighted that women’s services in Leeds have attracted the Big Lottery to invest in these services, benefitting women in our community and helping young girls and women most in need.”
Women’s Lives Leeds will place women and girls are at the heart of the successful investment of Big Lottery funding in Leeds, as part of a national programme of investment bringing together services with over 250 years of experience of work with women and girls. 12 organisations are joining together to support and empower women who are most at risk, forming a unique partnership not only for Leeds, but also nationally.
Women’s Lives Leeds (WLL) is a partnership with specialism’s in domestic violence, mental health, sexual health, sex work, trafficking, child sexual exploitation and work with ethnic minority groups. Extensive consultation with women identified a number of challenges women face in accessing services, with one of the first developments being a ‘Virtual Women’s Centre’, providing a Single Point of Information to women affected by very complex situations. The consortium is looking to reach 1657 women and girls at risk in the first year.
The long established services in Leeds are headed up by Leeds Women’s Aid (LWA) and will improve and extend access for at risk women and girls in Leeds to the services and support they want, when and where they choose, meeting the needs of women and girls with complex and multiple needs. Women and girls will also be empowered to support their peers and influence service development, delivery and design across the city.
LWA Chief Executive Kate Bratt-Farrar said:
“We have worked hard to secure this investment for women and girls in Leeds and as a partnership we’re really looking forward to being able to deliver even better services. We know that women with more complex needs face additional problems in getting the services they need and our consortium will be working with women and girls to address that.”
