Before and Beyond: An Important New Report

We are delighted to see the new Before and Beyond report from Davina James-Hanman and Yasmin Rehman, which sought the expertise of campaign group Killed Women and others in the Violence Against Women and Girls Sector at roundtable events.  The report considers how to make the biggest difference to women lives and brings together their combined eighty years’ experience of responding to men’s violence towards women and girls.

After benefitting from strong government investing in responding to men’s violence towards women and girls, the Sector has become fixated on money.  While the initial investment in the Sector was welcome, some organisations sacrificed their integrity in order to get a piece of the commissioned pie. He who pays the piper (or the refuge, or the outreach service) determines the tune.  And that tune has become gender-neutral, bureaucratic, and obsessed with risk.

This report challenges the risk obsession, rejects the privileging of a narrow criminal justice lens, considers how to build services which serve a broader range of women, and recognises the need for women to have economic power and better refuge options. While they do briefly consider funding, the report is much more interested in questioning the status quo than simply pushing for more money in service of the status quo.

We are pleased the report recognises Own My Life is rethinking traditional group work and we are honoured to be included alongside so many pioneering and brilliant sisters throughout the report.  And we hope that politicians and others will take time to really consider the report and the authors’ invitation to a transformed approach which is focussed on making women’s lives better.

Click to read the Before and Beyond report