Heart of England Community Foundation has announced it has donated £100,000 to charities supporting women and girls across the West Midlands and Warwickshire who have experienced domestic abuse, sexual violence, rape, modern slavery, marginalisation and complex challenges.
Heart of England Community Foundation has donated £10,000 to 10 charities from its dedicated Women and Girls Fund, which was launched after it identified a significant decline in the funding available specifically for women and girls.
The Foundation is also backing calls for the government to create a specific fund which supports women and girls nationally.
The announcement was made on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which marks the start of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence and calls for global solidarity to end violence against women and girls everywhere.
Those which have received funding include Anawim – Birmingham’s Centre for Women, Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid, Black Country Women’s Aid, Coventry Haven Women’s Aid, Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, Foleshill Women’s Training Limited, RoSA, Safeline, The Esther Project and WE:ARE Women’s Empowerment and Recovery Educators.
All of the charities provide a variety of vital specialist support services, workshops, counselling, courses and advocacy to women and girls across the West Midlands and Warwickshire.
Poignantly, the majority of the charities will be using the funds to cover the cost of core services and staffing – demonstrating the sheer need for such dedicated funding.
Pledging to show its support, the Foundation seeded the fund with £50,000 of its own reserves before opening it for donations, raising its £100,000 target within just four months.
Tina Costello OBE, Chief Executive of the Foundation, said:
“While things have improved, it’s clear that we still have an incredibly long way to go for women and girls to achieve equality.
“Domestic abuse and violence against women and girls is only increasing, and more needs to be done to help women and girls in these crisis situations.
“That’s why I’m extremely pleased that the Foundation has distributed £100,000 to organisations across the West Midlands which are providing vital support services to women and girls.
“While all of the organisations we have awarded funding to are slightly different, all of them are extremely inspirational and are doing absolutely incredible work to help create better lives for women and girls and drive change.
“Although the funds have been distributed, our work doesn’t stop here, and we will continue to support organisations which help women and girls on a local level.
“But this is much bigger than a local issue, and I would love to see the government recognise that we need a national fund to help organisations right across the UK which not only support women and girls, but are led by women.
“There are a number of organisations supporting women and girls which are lobbying government for this fund, and we are backing calls for this to come to fruition.