British Government Awards £1.3 million to Changing Lives Charity to Combat Violence Against Women and Children
The British Home Office has awarded £1.3 million to Changing Lives (CL) as part of the Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Supporting Children (PVSC): What Works Funding (WWF) initiative.
The charity will use the money to continue providing its current services to women in Northumbria, Durham, Darlington, and York who have been victims of sexual abuse, exploitation, or online grooming.
The director of Changing Lives' women's and children's services, Laura McIntyre, has stated that the organisation has seen an increase in sexual abuse cases and attributes this to the ongoing cost-of-living dilemma.
She explained, "Some of the women we connect with, on online spaces, have multiple unmet needs and have told us that offering 'sex for rent' or ‘free sex’ to support other survival needs is a common experience, and is driven by poverty, hardship, and the cost-of-living crisis.
“During Covid-19, we developed a report called Net-reach, where we observed a worrying number of young women and girls (18-25 years old) advertising sexual services online, raising concerns about child sexual exploitation and ongoing vulnerability to abuse in adulthood.
“Thanks to the funding, this project will allow our specialist team to build up relationships with women in a growing environment, where we can offer support to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation.
"We understand that not all women are abused online but organisationally we see increasing numbers of women accessing our services after being harmed online, traumatised, and feeling suicidal.”
For the three-year funding period, a service manager, data analyst, and 2.5 Net-reach workers will be hired to make contact with women and girls via digital means to prevent online sexual assault.
While this is going on, 3.5 outreach workers will be available to offer direct assistance to victims of cyberbullying.
To determine which young women, ages 16 to 25, are most vulnerable to sexual exploitation or harassment online, the charity will collaborate with Social Finance, which will provide support for data collection and analysis.
"We are delighted to be able to support Changing Lives in its expansion of the Net-reach programme," said Nadine Smith, director of government and enterprise at Social Finance.
“Our role will be to ensure we collate data in a trauma-informed way and collectively make sense of it with those across the system, especially the Home Office who are funding this vital work.
"Having learning at the heart of this work will mean we can robustly test the effectiveness of Changing Lives’ Net-reach model, whilst also informing the current and future work of government and its partners to support women, inform education about online harms and ensure policy, practice and funding flows move with the times.”
The Minister for Safeguarding, Sarah Dines, added, “Tackling all forms of violence against women and girls is a government priority, so that women and girls are safe everywhere — at home, online, at work, and on the streets."
“We are proud to invest further in projects which identify the most effective ways to intervene early and prevent these crimes from being committed in the first place, which will protect those most vulnerable to abuse.”