New project announcement…
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR) is delighted to announce that it, together with its partners, DMSS Research and the Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU), will deliver evaluation and learning support to projects funded through the Women and Girls Initiative (WGI), which was set up by The National Lottery Community Fund in 2016.
£44.7 million of National Lottery money has been invested in 62 projects across England to support and empower women and girls facing violence, abuse, exploitation and mental health issues. This funding is enabling national organisations and grassroots projects to provide dedicated support for women and girls in local communities through outreach, advice and advocacy, refuge and prevention projects.
The aim of the initiative is to help build a stronger women and girls sector through:
- Increased provision of holistic, person-centred approaches for women and girls
- Increased role and voice for women and girls in co-producing services
- Greater number of women and girls being supported through the provision of improved specialist support
- Better quality of evidence for what works in empowering women and girls
TIHR, DMSS Research and CWASU will be supporting the Fund’s Women and Girls Initiative grant holders to capture and share learning and develop a community of services that is stronger and has greater influence.
The purpose of our support over five years is to:
- Identify what holistic approaches for women and girls looks like
- Describe how these approaches can increase and improve specialist support
- Understand what enables women and girls to be co-producers of services
- Support projects to generate and use their own local evidence
Support will be provided in a variety of ways including:
- One-to-one support for grant-holders
- An online learning hub to enable collective conversations
- Action Learning Sets
- Msterclasses and workshops
- Publication of regular reports/briefings
- A national conference in 2022, to showcase and share project achievements and learning
We are excited to be delivering this work at a time when women are again strongly protesting individual and systemic inequalities and abuses. However, we recognise that there is much to be done. An example is contesting the recently proposed changes to funding for refuge services. These changes would mean women would not be able to pay for their accommodation using housing benefit, the last guaranteed source of income available to refuges.
Together with the 62 WGI grant-holders and the women and girls they work with, TIHR, DMSS and CWASU will be exploring how the sector can better demonstrate its impact, raise its voice and increase its influence for the long-term benefit of women and girls.
Regular project updates will be posted on TIHR’s and The National Lottery Community Fund’s websites, via our newsletter and social media pages (including @T_I_H_R and @TNLComFund).
To find out more about the WGI impact and Learning Services please contact either:
- Camilla Child, Principal Consultant/Researcher, TIHR
Heather Stradling, Senior Researcher/Consultant, TIHR
Further information about the WGI and the 62 grant-holders can be found on the
The National Lottery Community Fund website.
