Black and Minoritised-led organisations funded through Community Grant Programme
We are delighted to announce the five organisations led by Black and Minoritised women that will receive support from the funding Barclays has donated to our Community Grant Programme.
As highlighted in the Women’s Budget Group’s ‘The gendered impact of the cost-of-living crisis’ report, research shows that poverty rates are significantly higher among women from Black and Minoritised groups, when compared to their white counterparts, making it harder to meet rising living costs.
This is why working in partnership with organisations such as these are vital to Smallwood’s mission of ending gendered poverty.
These organisations are:
Kanlungan Filipino Consortium
Hull Sisters
Sandwell African Women Association
Kundakala
Women Today – North East
Summary of organisations and use of funds:
Kanlungan Filipino Consortium
Kanlungan is an umbrella organisation to unify and coordinate the activities of other Filipino migrant organisations in the UK. The organisation provides holistic and practical support that empowers individuals and groups economically, politically, socially, emotionally and spiritually.
The mental health needs of the Filipino migrant community soared during the COVID-19 pandemic and the organisation responded by increasing capacity by 976% and supporting 5,381 individuals and their families, the vast majority being women.
How will the funds be spent: Kanlungan will assist migrant women (and their children) who have experienced domestic violence in meeting basic needs through cash grants and other material support. Funds will also support their current mental health and well-being projects by increasing support worker hours to meet high demand.
Website: https://www.kanlungan.org.uk/
Hull Sisters
Hull Sisters works with the most disadvantaged women in Kingston upon Hull to empower and upskill them to deal with isolation and poverty. The organisation is run by-and-for Black and Minoritised women and has been providing women only services in a supportive environment, with the aim of empowering, informing, increasing confidence, skills and improving health and well-being.
Many of the women the organisation supports face violence, abuse, FGM, the fear of honour killing, poverty, poor health (physical, mental, and sexual), low self-esteem and confidence. They are socially, culturally, digitally, and economically excluded.
How will the funds be spent: Hull Sisters will help women to access small cash grants to enable them to pay for essential needs such as household bills, food, baby clothes, transport costs, rent arrears to prevent eviction, rent deposits and ‘setting up home’ costs. The funding will also go towards further provision of their 1-to-1 peer support and the continuation of delivering free culturally appropriate food packages to families across Hull.
Website: https://hullsisters.org/
Sandwell African Women Association (SAWA)
SAWA provides advice, support and training to African women refugees and children from the Sandwell area, Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampton. This improves safety, access to justice and well-being of women and children in Sandwell.
Last year it supported 225 women and children. This demographic, particularly African women refugees and migrants experienced extremely high levels of poor mental health and financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How will the funds be spent: To help young mothers whose lives have been on hold since the COVID-19 outbreak to access small cash grants to enable them to pay for essential needs or to provide emergency packs directly. Help will also be provided to young mothers who are survivors of domestic violence, financial and economic abuse, who are navigating the welfare/housing system or who suffer from loss of income, and/or are seeking to re-skill and find new employment opportunities 1-to-1 support.
Website: https://sawa.org.uk/
Kundakala
Kundakala based in London provides women from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali and Central African backgrounds with the practical skills to start their own businesses via employability and tailoring workshops. The organisation offers careers guidance, advice and incentives to enable them to start their own businesses and provide a supplementary source of income to support their families and gain financial independence.
How will the funds be spent: Kundakala will pilot a programme in which a group of women will undertake a 6-month tailoring programme with weekly classes on a sewing machine in a community venue with employability support on starting their own businesses provided too.
Women Today – North East
Women Today – North East are recognised as the lead representative agency for Black African Women in Middlesbrough that empowers women of African heritage to recognise and achieve their full potential and live free from harm and disadvantage.
Black African migrant communities in Middlesbrough are in one of the most deprived parts of the UK, and amongst the UK’s highest per-capita population of asylum seekers. Women from this community have experienced mass job loss as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, been subjected to greater levels of abuse in the home, increased risk of homelessness and faced a significant rise in severe mental health problems.
How will the funds be spent: Women Today offers core services such as weekly women’s groups, 1-to-1 support for women in crisis, and community outreach for those experiencing acute isolation. This funding will add significant value to the organisation’s existing work, allowing for immediate financial hardship to be alleviated during times of significant stress.
Women Today will also run a ‘Destitution Fund’ in which women will be supported with their emergency needs such as essential items for women and children and temporary safe accommodation for women fleeing abuse as they await a refuge place.
Website: https://womentodayne.co.uk/
