Project Overview
New research | Partnership facilitated | Lobbied |
Imkaan, founded in 2004, is a Black feminist organisation. They are the only national second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women and girls. They work at a local, national and international level to tackle issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based' violence.
Imkaan’s main services include:
- Strategic advocacy – ensuring policy and practices dedicated to ending violence against women and girls is reflective of Black and minoritised women and girls’ experiences of violence
- Development and support – provision to the sector of information, capacity building and peer support
- Research and evaluation
- Training and peer education
- Consultancy
The grant awarded by Isla allowed Imkaan to develop a research paper on experiences of sexual violence among BME communities, including incidence rates, underreporting and response from police and other services.
The research highlighted key gaps and needs in responses to sexual violence experienced by BME women and girls.
The project included a fruitful partnership with Rape Crisis England & Wales, who agreed to support their members to improve current responses to BME women and girls. Imkaan says, “RCEW [have] embraced the findings [which] is a significant milestone and achievement given that this is the first time that the service responses to BME women have been interrogated in this way.”
No other similar research existed, and the findings were used to brief and lobby policy makers, commissioners and funders.