What is Birmingham doing towards the Elimination of Violence against Women & Girls? #CoLab
Summary Report 10th December 2015
www.spacesofchange.org
Summary
Each year the 10 December marks International Human Rights Day. It is a time to reflect upon where we are now in terms of questions of equality and justice not only at the global level but also in our own cities, towns and communities. To explore what is happening within our reach and how we can work together to address the issues.
Thirty individuals attended for the day, representing different sectors, including health, police, local authority, mental health, academia, community-based organisations and survivors of domestic violence. Together, we engaged in deep dialogue, analysed issues, collaborated and looked at collective ways of moving forwards.
This year, 2015, also marks 20-years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for the Elimination of Violence against all Women and Girls. Human Rights Day is also the end of ‘16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign’. The annual Human Rights #CoLab wanted to acknowledge this important milestone, to reflect and explore not only where we are in terms of addressing violence against women and girls, but also vision and outline where we want to be in in the next 20-years and the changes we want to see?
This is a Report of the discussions and outcomes of the day. There has been very little analysis conducted on what was said and done in order to maintain the authenticity of the #CoLab. Please feel free to share this Report through your networks and online.
Spaces of Change partnered with the Women’s Networking Hub and the Impact Hub Birmingham to bring a range of stakeholders from around Birmingham together around the question: What is Birmingham doing towards the Elimination of violence against women and girls?
Many thanks to all those who attended. Joanne Coysh Participation, Learning and Change Facilitator Spaces of Change
Acknowledgements: Rich pictures and graphic recording courtesy of Paolo Rozo With thanks to Niki Bi, Impact Hub Birmingham and Shahida Choudry, Women’s Networking Hub for helping to organise and host this #CoLab.
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#CoLab Process The #CoLab process offers people and organisations wanting to take a deep dive into those challenging and ‘wicked’ questions or problems, which we cannot resolve alone the opportunity to co-learn and co-create from each other. This means building on experiences, knowledge and practice through collaborative dialogue, interacting with and connecting with each other, inquiring into current practice and collectively exploring new ideas and action. On a broader scale, the aim of the #CoLab process is to cultivate local spaces of community-led research, learning and action around difficult social, environmental or cultural issues in order to understand the practical and critical issues for people in different localities and how they impact upon everyday lives.
The Principles Space is opened up to bring people together either once or on several occasions over a period of time. This provides opportunity not only to deepen the collective learning but also put it into practice in our work, practice or lives. Interaction is lightly guided by a facilitator who is able to understand and respect the importance of process, dialogue and knowledge exchange. With many years understanding and experience of holding spaces for different groups of people from all over the world, this is applied to surface the knowledge in the room, create synergy and galvanise action. It involves cultivating an open, relaxed and safe space for individuals to share experiences and practice through interactive and creative activities, as well as, encouraging deep thinking and critical thinking.
Respect and harness the common knowledge, experiences and resources of people Everyone is considered an expert and everyone brings their own unique experience and knowledge, which is all valid. This includes localised or indigenous forms of knowledge and resources from communities. Cultivate collaboration, interaction and dialogue Where people feel safe to share without fear of repercussions; where everyone has a voice and an opportunity to contribute; where we can transcend power hierarchies and participate as equals in dialogue with each other. Explore real problems in context Iterative cycles and constant feedback loops enable progressive learning and building of knowledge in ‘real time’ rather than one off ‘snap shots’ which are reported in retrospect. It can help to understand better how change happens by consistently reflecting upon what is happening in the present in relation to the current context, adapting and improving. Encourage critical inquiry and reflection Ensuring that we are asking challenging questions of ourselves and others, to engage in meaningful dialogue and build upon our collective knowledge in order to seek appropriate responses or explore new ways of doing. Use creative communication To communicate complex ideas in a visual and engaging manner, generate dialogue and ideas.
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The Agenda
What is the core you want to explore?
Introduction Networking and identification of core questions/ purpose: • What is the core question which you would like to explore? • What is it that brings you here? 1-2-4-ALL • What is the Key Challenge which you face? Conversation Café • Moving Forward with 4 key challenges
Current Situation: What is happening ‘now’?
• How can all these organisations work together and how can they access the diverse and • What is being done to support women and girls segregated communities in Birmingham? in Birmingham against violence? • What about girls and young women (students)? • What is the extent of DV in Birmingham?
• How can we ensure that we develop a service that will engage women and girls of FGM? • How to prioritise VAW in a hostile climate?
LUNCH
• What needs to be done? Why isn’t it happening?
Circle Discussion
• What is the current situation?
• Anything you feel is not being said or addressed?
• What are the key considerations and questions?
• What do you want to leave here with by the end of the day?
• How (to) can we empower women to help themselves?
• How can we promote recovery/ support to engender long term change socially as well as personally?
4-D Mapping
What is the role of services, organisations and the community in Birmingham?
• How can we effectively remove the injustices against women?
• Sensing the system What next? Proposed action CLOSE
• How can the women and girls sector be sustained? • How are women’s services delivered, affected by cuts? • Will austerity cuts impact on service for women in Birmingham? • How do we fit into the existing services in Birmingham? • How best to engage with the community in order to make a difference in people’s lives/ empowering women?
• How can the CoLab provide a structure for the way forward? How can we make change? What should we do?
• How can we make a change? • How can we change society to eliminate violence? • How can we make an impacting change? • How to prevent violence against women? Where do ‘I’ fit into this? • How can I help within my role networking for volunteering? • How can I continue to gain knowledge?
• How can faith communities be equipped/ challenged to stand up against GBV?
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What is it that brings you here? For many of the participants they were drawn into the process through a wish to meet and learn from others working on similar issues, to find out what activities are currently taking place, make connections and network. There is a sense that while certain approaches are working, that challenges in the system remains and this was an opportunity to begin explore alternative approaches and ways of moving forward towards change.
Networking/ Learning/ Collaboration
Learning from others
• Networking with other women
• To listen to views and take consideration to increase knowledge of the W&G sector
• Meeting people involved in different projects • To network too • I am currently leading on FGM for health, so I am interested in building networks within the city • A desire to make contacts and learn from others experiences
• Looking to learn more about how services are delivered • Interest in what the situation is in Birmingham – received the email from the Women’s Equality Party • I want to gain more insight into the issues; benefit from sharing experience and views; meet and network with likeminded people • Networking and to learn from others experiences • To explore and share views on the topic and learn different points
Exploration of new/ alternative ideas/ approaches • Research project re-designing women’s services in Northampton with colleagues • I meet many men and women who work in this area and also those who experience violence. As a photographer I aim to show to reality of a situation. I often see many people doing great work but feel frustrated at the minimal effect • As a law and sociology student I want to explore the issues of violence against women – from a law perspective I am interested in the legal measures Birmingham is taking and from the sociological perspective I want to address this huge societal problem • The futility of trying to help and trying to do it better • To move away from thinking about services to thinking about change • To work with others to fight against violence against women and girls
Personal motivation/ specific approach/issue • To showcase what the police actually do rather than what the TV always portrays police do (aim is to safeguard) • I am passionate about making a difference • The need to find ways to reach victims of DV who have been affected by conflict • My experience working with women and girls who have been sexually assaulted (victims or survivors of violence • Supporting women through recovery • Ensuring that disabled women stay on the agenda • Learn more on the support in Birmingham of violence against women and girls • Interest/ concern/ experience of domestic violence from educational perspectives • Passionate about improving service for survivors of domestic and sexual violence and ending victim blaming; raising awareness • I am interested in women’s issues. Stepping out of mental health services and resources for women • Survivor/ full circle/way forward • I want to see the church/ faith communities more engaged with the issues
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What are the key challenges you are currently facing and how can they be addressed?
The group identified four key challenges which were then discussed in more detail. These included: 1. Access and provision of quality and reach of support services These focused upon funding and accountability, access to services and support, training and the types of spaces and support available 2. Raising awareness about violence against women and girls in all areas of society This involves challenging preconceptions about what ‘violence’ entails from an early age in many different spaces and engaging not only with formal institutions but also looking at how to raise awareness through informal venues and public places.
3. Challenging assumptions, perceptions and shifting attitudes By addressing not only the symptoms but the root causes and dispelling myths perpetuated by the mainstream media, beginning to look at VAWG as something which is more endemic and systemic rather than an individual problem 4. Empowering women and girls to know that violence is wrong
Access and provision of quality and reach of support and services Funding and accountability
Access
This was felt to be a particularly timely topic for discussion, given the current climate of cuts to essential social and welfare services and austerity measures. This is impacting upon the services which currently support the EVAWG and raises a challenge to continue with the provision of quality services. At the same time there were some issues with how current funding is allocated and managed which means that it does not always meet the needs.
There is a need to access those hard to reach and vulnerable individuals, groups and communities (asylum seekers/ refugees/ disabled) where violence can often remain hidden and a challenge to access refugee communities in need of services and support. It is difficult to identify issues early in these communities.
Profound Impact of cuts upon women and the provision of quality services and how this impacts upon statutory agencies. There is a need to address the attitudes towards VAW because this affects where funding is targeted and spent. Funding is often short term and targeted, this means it doesn’t always fit the need for a holistic approach; there is a tension between funding for overheads and project and there is a lack of stability Need to review how you measure success and effectiveness of service provision and staff are measured and move away from tick box exercises and approaches which place increasing pressure on staff and take them away from what is important – change how and why we have measures for funding – what are we accountable for and to whom?
Knowing where to go for help and having knowledge of what is available is seen to be a key factor, which means that there needs to be better publicity and signposting, as well as, accessing alternative spaces, such as using food/ music events as a way in. However, ensuring access also requires those in need having trust in the help and support that is being offered. Training Access to quality support and services means that there needs to be adequate and appropriate training for different providers, including health workers. This was seen to include on-going and meaningful training for staff in organisations and restorative supervision. Community leaders/ workers and centres viewed as being an important channel of communication and way of getting information and access to the hard-to-reach groups. They need to be worked with more.
Rich picture courtesy of Paolo Rozo
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Types and spaces of support There is a need for: • Locally relevant, participatory and victim/ survivor focused support, including survivors in this and offering peer support through networks. The development of victim-centred negotiated strategy to reach communities which involves the user in the service design and delivery. • Safe environments in all facets of society: GPs practices, coffee mornings, schools, children’s centres, faith institutions, women’s groups
• Engagement with non-specialists in women’s sector, i.e. teachers, videos, media, music • School readiness • Meaningful dialogue with faith institutions to offer a way into gender equality and sexual wellbeing • Engaging men in the discussions, support and services
Raising awareness about VAWG in all areas of society It is important to raise awareness of what constitutes violence and abuse but also address issues such as healthy friendships, appropriate behaviour and sexual relationships. This encourages mutual respect, the development of positive attitudes and role models. Raising awareness of emotional abuse and enable individuals understand better how subtle abuse may constitute violence. This means also teaching the very basics about violence, abuse and consent through simple, appropriate and effective messages and media. Also, to be more aware of the factors which can make certain individuals or groups doubly vulnerable through other circumstances, such as disability or marginalisation.
There are many channels through which to raise awareness and a range of stakeholders should be involved: • Appropriate and engaging media campaigns – ‘Consent is like a cup of tea’ film • Bring into schools, curriculum, policy – whole school ethos that VAWG is unacceptable, start early (Reception) • Word of mouth – get more people talking about it openly • Learning from survivors • Engage men in raising awareness – positive role models in speaking out against VAWG and enabling positive masculinities • Engaging community leaders in raising awareness in different spaces • Using public spaces, i.e. toilet cubicles • Other spaces: schools, youth groups, barber shops, hairdressers, maternity placements, GPs, coffee mornings, children’s centres, faith institutions, women’s groups • Making ‘outsiders’ more aware on how they can help victims • Engaging young girls in making and accepting behaviours • Raising awareness with all – children as well as young people, adults and professionals • Education starts at home – pre-natal, parents education • Grassroots teaching • How to raise awareness of the ‘heard to reach’ and trapped? Have no access, always in the abusers company or do not speak English – this is a big challenge
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Challenging perceptions, assumptions and shifting attitudes
• Taking responsibility for our own choices – we choose the media, etc
This means addressing:
• Get more high profile women acknowledging and talking about this in politics and policy
• Root cause and a wide range of external influences • Violence and the role/value of women and girls • Need to dispel myths/ blaming attitudes in schools and public places • Subtle abuse can constitute violence • Media portrayal of women • Dispelling myths of women’s needs • Change the stigma of social services – women think that their children will be taken away – stigma on professionals • Do not want to lose bring a feminist – changing the stigma and misrepresentations about what it means to be a feminist and engaging men in the discussion This should be done by: • Engaging men in challenging perceptions and shifting attitudes • Shifting of deeply entrenched stereotypical poetry, literature, arts, film • Getting it right in the media – soap stories and having the right media images. Avoid sensationalism, strong narratives, using photography to give voice and challenge stereotypes • Open to pornography and this can change what understandings about sex and love is – how to challenge that • Challenging and not condoning in the classroom and media
Circle Discussion
• Challenging and changing the culture – sports/ equal pay • Unlearning traditional values and overcoming some of these barriers • Trying to take the pressure off young women Empowering women and girls to know that violence is wrong • Enabling women and girls to see and accept the value of who they are through social and emotional development, building their confidence in schools, workplace and institutional settings • Giving and allowing supported women to have choices in society • Education of men and positive masculinity – engaging men in awareness raising • Being able to have choice and draw lines on how you allow a professional to treat or touch you for medical or others reasons related to abuse • Men victims should be listened to and believed
Understanding • Understanding how difficult it can be to hear the stories or others experiences and the effects of this • Work with a system – if you are a person listening sometimes hard to hear – professionals • Need to be empathetic to stories of violence Promoting Collaboration
hear are that the police are failing victims – breaks down trust. • Don’t stigmatise the whole community because of a few • Challenging the negative stereotypes of abused – what is useful? • Challenging the norms within the organisations and processes – push back on them
• How do these services link with mental health? Need for more strength and collaboration
• Dismantling stereotypes
• Interconnections in the system – there is currently a challenge of not knowing who is out there and who to connect with
Focusing upon the victims/ survivors
• Lack of collaboration/ between agencies
• How do perpetrators of violence become perpetrators? • Looking for where victims/ survivors come from – from a place of trying to be safe
• Women to empower each other
• Need to be more sharing of information
• Don’t want to tell a story multiple times to multiple services
• Empowering women to want to seek help and change the situation of abuse
Dismantling Stereotypes
• See it from the abused person’s perspective
• If there was a stereotype to disassemble what would it be? Paedophiles are monsters
• Protection
• What police do and our work? Safeguarding people and getting them back from Pakistan
• Physical/ financial barriers
• Equal representations and treatment of women in society would help
• Stereotype of police also that everyone can be saved and need to learn that we cannot mend all of societies ills – HBV and FGM – what about the positive stories? All we ever
• Housing • Look at the whole person • Support and safety • Practical support and emotional support
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Provision of services
Challenges and difficult questions:
• Challenging the norms of services
• Have to work on both sides
• Frustration of service providers
• How/ Can we get perpetrators to change? Society? Peer support?
• Constantly changing conditions – how can you expect a strategic approach in such a climate of change? • Cuts to mental health services, etc have a huge impact – valuing of public services
4D Mapping1 of the System of Violence against Women & Girls
• Acknowledgement of the privilege of having the choice to speak and being able to come to events like this • How do we take it out of this space and into the community? • Are we asking the right questions?
4D mapping is a collective exercise which aims to make visible the current reality of a social system which can remain hidden, such as the education, health or, in this case, the system dealing with VAWG. It can be used with groups to gain new insights about their own system or want to use this method as a way of exploring relationships and the hidden aspects of an issue they may be struggling with. It explores how the highest aspiration in a system might come forward and participants apply mindfulness of body and awareness of the surrounding space. 4D mapping is about surfacing and noticing how a system can shift and it might be significant when moving from one reality to another. Below are some of the insights from the process. Roles 1. Police – “I will protect you” to “I feel more connected to the 2. Schools - “I don’t feel close to the women” to “I feel closer now to the women and children”
6. Men – “I want to help but don’t know how” to “I felt I wanted to move closer and be more involved” 7. Voluntary sector - “I feel overwhelmed” to “we have a shared responsibility.”
3. Abuser – “I feel powerful” to “I feel excluded. Felt I wanted to move closer but couldn’t.”
8. National government – “I am only interested in what it will cost”
4. Abused – “I am scared” to “I needed to get up and get back onto my feet – said to the child ‘we need to get up now’”
9. Global Institutions – “I see the big picture” to “I see how I need to engage with what is happening at the local level”
5. Children – “I am scared” to “because my mum got up, I got up too and feel more in control, still scared but not like I was”
This process was originally developed by Arawana Hayashi of the Presencing Institute, www.presencing.com/permissions/
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Proposed Actions
What happened? Sculpture 1 Child was only worried about her mother, nothing else. Needed to remain close – abused and child crouching down heads down, facing away from the abuser who had arm over them but facing away and hand on hip. Global institutions were facing the group but higher up on a chair. Police and schools quite close together but facing away from the abused and child. Local authority and national government. Standing alone and away from the rest of the group.
1. Set up a working group at Heartlands Hospital HIV department to look at improving how we treat women who have experienced violence
Sculpture 2
2. Provide the option of peer-support or mental health support for all women recovering from abuse/ violence
Child and abused stood up, stayed together but moved a bit closer to the police and schools. Abuser turned facing away and moved away from the group. Men moved closer towards the abused and child but not completely together. All turned to face inwards except the abuser. Global institutions, national government and local authority on the periphery but together.
3. Start a service at my university that deals specifically with this. Raise awareness about harassment towards female students and get male students involved. Make it clear that there are things which are NOT OK (doesn’t matter how drunk you are or how crowded the party is 4. Establish an online forum for networking, sharing of best practice and evidence of learning within women and girls sector
Reflections Abuser moved from having power over and power to being completely excluded from the group and facing away. On the margins of the system but not included at all. Abused and the child stayed together the whole time but felt compelled to stand up and move closer to the rest of the group, but still the closest distance remained between them and appeared completely together. The global institutions need to understand and engage with the local context rather than viewing
it from the outside and a distance. Local authority, government, voluntary sector and services need to work together and be more closely connected with the victim/ survivor at the centre, learning from them and the schools. Men want to be more included and closer but unsure how to get involved. Schools need to understand the position of the person being abused better and the impact that this can have on the child. Police need to work more with the abused and also with schools.
5. An email list or forum where we can keep in touch so our ability to collaborate and work together grows
6. To work more with community and provide an effective victim/ survivor service 7. Use my skills to come up with interventions that reach victims of violence against women and girls in a more holistic manner 8. Re-work services that collaborate effectively and are women/ survivor/ victim focused at the heart of the practice. Creating safe spaces for women 9. Educating men but more importantly women and girls on their rights 10. Be involved in leading a more co-ordinated and effective strategy of various agencies in tackling the issue 11. Use photography to tell real life stories and access communities to hear their voice and connect everyone who can make a difference
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Conclusion and Further Questions
Participants There were 30 participants representing many different organisations outlined below: 1. Dudley Mind 2. West Midlands Police (Honour Based Violence/ FGM) 3. Heartlands Hospital HIV Department 4. Responding to Conflict 5. Trident, Domestic Abuse Service 6. Safeguarding Children for Birmingham, South Central and Cross City 7. Ashram Moseley Housing Association
Given the short period in which to convene this important #CoLab there was rich dialogue, engagement and interaction amongst the participants who were not only focused upon the challenges currently being faced in the field of VAWG but enthusiastic about looking for ways to move forwards more collectively. In terms of the process, the 4D mapping enabled the individuals to step outside their own roles and to take on a different physical and mental presence within the space; to see the system. From this emerged deeper reflection and discussion about how the system currently works and the possibilities for a different system in future. There were four important themes emerging, each of which has left a further question which would be worth exploring in future. These themes are:
8. Big Lottery Fund 9. Violence against Women Services, Birmingham City Council 10. Women’s Networking Hub 11. NHS Health Visitor Commissioner 12. ADA Peer Support 13. Near Neighbours 14. Mental Health Services 15. Breaking the Silence 16. Beti Project
1. Places and spaces Where are the new spaces of engagement? 2. Identity, images and stereotypes How do images and ideas about sexual identity and victim/ survivor distinction contribute to current understandings and ways of dealing with the issue?
3. Funding and service provision What is the impact of cuts upon women and girls who are suffering or who have survived violence? 4. Vulnerable / hard to reach groups and communities How can we access/ reach/ engage with those parts of the community that never attend these events, engage in discussion – ‘invisible’ women?
17. Muslim Women’s Network 18. Impact Hub Birmingham 19. Spaces of Change 20. Coventry University 21. Birmingham University 22. Warwick University
This report will be made available online at www.spacesofchange.org. Please feel free to circulate or share on your own website making reference to the original source. If you have any feedback or comments we would love to hear from you and please email joanne.coysh@spacesofchange.org.
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Improvements
Email connections who were present please
“Meeting and hearing the views of so many different people from all different walks of life”
I could see the benefit of doing a longer session, but it was great as a taster
“Face to face meeting of likeminded people who are working at forefront/ conversation café”
Way of sharing details
Staggered pricing system might be helpful. Fee then ‘pay how you feel’ makes it difficult to reclaim. More from the fee where an organisation is represented
Appendix 1 Participant feedback for the day What did you find more useful/ enjoyable? “Experience sharing” “Shared ideas from different practitioner perspectives” “The sculpture and conversation café” “Meeting contacts and networking” “Sharing Knowledge” “Hearing different perspectives” “Meeting people working in the field of VAWG and sharing experiences/ networking” “I enjoyed the discussions and role play” “The mix of organisations represented, the opportunities to share the tools used” “Being able to talk to people actively involved in cases of domestic violence. Networking with them and actually getting to know so many organisations that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise”
“Networking opportunities” “Meeting other agencies that I don’t usually network with” “Bringing people together who share similar concerns but operate in different ways. Looking at ways to deal with issues as a collaboration”
Give prospective participants an ‘agenda’ of the events that will take place during the day so they have a clearer idea of how the CoLab will run I hope there will be an opportunity to share contact details and the information about ourselves
Create a mailing list/ forum so we can keep connected and updated about opportunities to help More events
Keep a history and sharing experiences to find ways to tackle the scourge of VAWG
Contact sheet with details of possible collaboration areas
“Really good networking and interesting event”
Let people know about photography ahead of time
“Reassurance that other people care and are also actively engaged in trying to improve this situation”
Perhaps a break in the morning session
Further discussion and ways to look for collaborative learning
“Encouraging such a range of people from different backgrounds”
Anything else? Continue with these meetings It would be great to have feedback/ findings from the day and learnings I would be interested in another CoLab More CoLabs are the way to go to strengthen our collaboration and networking I would like to become part of the Women’s Networking Group so that I continue to learn and share
I would come to a similar event and it has been a valuable experience Found the day inspiring and an excellent networking opportunity “A useful and structure event, excellent opportunity for exchange of ideas” “Wonderful collaboration, great starting point to bring about change” “A brilliant and thought provoking mix of networking and creative thinking”
Spaces of Change Branding & Report designed by George Dent www.georgedent.net
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