Imkaan Developing Service Standards …
Imkaan Developing Service Standards …
Imkaan is happy to announce that with the support of Trust for London we are developing Service Standards on Working with Forced Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation and ‘Honour’- Based Violence for the Specialist Black Minority Ethnic and Refugee Violence against Women and girls sector. We will be working in partnership with Womens Aid Federation of England to ensure that the standards have national impact. We will draw upon current frameworks and standards including the national Women’s Aid Standards on Domestic and Sexual Violence for the violence against women sector to meet the needs of black, minority ethnic and refugee women and girls affected by harmful practices.
Definitions
Imkaan considers that forced marriage, female genital mutilation and honour Based violence which primarily or disproportionately affect women and/or girls are forms of violence against women. As such, we believe that these forms of violence are directly linked to gender inequality and notions of patriarchy and should be treated similarly to other forms of violence within the context of violence against women and girls. Whilst these forms of violence are likely to require specialist practice-based knowledge and responses, they should be contextualised within violence against women and girls. The definitions are as follows:
• Female Genital Mutilation: Involves the complete or partial removal or alteration of external genitalia for non-medical reasons. It is mostly carried out on young girls at some time between infancy and the age of 15.
• Forced Marriage: A marriage conducted without the valid consent of one or both parties where duress is a factor. Duress may take the form of emotional, financial, physical and sexual threats and abuse.
• Honour based violence: Violence committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and/or community. Women, especially young women, are the most common targets often where they have acted outside community boundaries of perceived acceptable feminine/sexual behaviour. . (Definitions of ‘community’ may vary and include gang association and serious youth violence)
Benefits
• A unique set of standards that provides a framework for capturing the knowledge and skills of the specialist BMER womens sector
• Provides an opportunity for specialist BMER organisations to validate their expertise, approaches and provision of services within a relevant framework.
• Provides a process for reflection, development and improvement of services
• Organisations can assess their own practice within a related context
• Having a service specific standardised framework is a valuable tool for assuring funders, commissioners and other stakeholders of the quality of your service.
We are keen to involve Imkaan members, key stakeholders and pioneers within the field throughout this process. During the process we will:
1. Select a number of London based groups to pilot the developed standards along with an accreditation process.
2. Set up an advisory group
3. Co-ordinate consultations with our member groups to feed into the development.
We will also begin to contact key stakeholders who have made a valuable contribution to the BMER VAWG sector.
If you want to participate please feel free to contact the Development Officer leading on this:
Dorett Jones on 020 72503933
Thank you and we look forward to developing this work together.
