Does Partnership Work?
(Points of View from Sex Work Projects, Sex Workers and Other Agencies)

Organised by the UK Network of Sex Work Projects, the theme of the day was partnership work amongst agencies to enable a better and safer environment for sex workers. The knowledge drawn from this conference will inform The Haven Wolverhampton’s partnership working with this client group.

Dawn Corbett
Floating Support Worker

Benchmarking

For the fourth time this year, The Haven Wolverhampton will be taking part in the National Benchmarking Project, run by supported housing umbrella organisation Sitra, in partnership with supported housing consultancy HouseMark and the National Housing Federation, the social housing body. ‘Benchmarking’ is the collection and comparison of data regarding services and service users - is a major component in dealing with the Supporting People funding programme. Benchmarking enables us to look at quality and user satisfaction as well as financial questions and performance. The Haven is committed to Benchmarking and Performance Monitoring to ensure continuous evaluation and improvement of the services it delivers to the community.

Gursharan Bassi
ICT Developer & Administrator

Conference: “Behind Closed Doors: Culture, Honour, and Gender Justice”

This event was organised by ‘Social Vision’, whose aim is to address vital issues of the contemporary community, cultural and religious affinity, ethnicity and societal situations (www.ethnicsociety.com). Speakers discussed Domestic Violence, Honour Based Violence and Forced Marriage in a national and international context. Increasingly, The Haven Wolverhampton is receiving referrals from women who are facing the issues discussed at this conference.

Jenni Lewis
Floating Support Co-ordinator

Why ‘Women-Only’?

The Women’s Resource Centre recently launched the report: “Why women-only? The value and benefits of ‘by women, for women’ services” (October 2007). This document explored the value and relevance of women-only settings and concluded that:

‘There is a lack of understanding about women-only services which, coupled with the ‘equality myth’, is resulting in women-only services being increasingly pressured to justify why their services are women-only. . . . Women-only services are needed and wanted by women and have significant, positive impacts on their service users. The value and benefits of women-only services are many - women feel safe, supported and comfortable using women-only services. They become empowered, increase their confidence and self esteem, feel less marginalised and more able to express themselves. Women using these services feel that their voices are heard and listened to’.

In April of this year, the Gender Equality Duty was introduced, which places a positive duty on public authorities to have ‘due regard’ for the promotion of equality of opportunity for men and women. Public bodies must now consider service delivery, policy and decision making in the context of Gender Equality. There are now real opportunities for women’s groups and organisations to challenge decisions made at a local level that would adversely affect women. The Haven Wolverhampton will refer to the requirements and powers of the Gender Equality Duty to ensure that our services are not lost in the quest for a ‘gender-blind’ approach to the distribution of funds.

‘Why Women-only?’ can be downloaded at http://www.wrc.org.uk/downloads/Policystuff/whywomenonly.pdf

Kath Farmer
Support Services Director

New Home for The Haven Wolverhampton

Over the summer, the Floating Support, Advocacy, Counselling, External Training and Volunteer services at The Haven moved into the same central Wolverhampton building – Herian House – as the Administrative / Management section. Our address remains the same – The Haven Wolverhampton, PO Box 105, Wolverhampton, as do our phone numbers: Office/General Enquiries 01902 572 140; 24-Hour Referrals: 01902 713 001.

Donations of good quality, clean clothes, furniture, utensils and toys should still be taken to the ACTIVE centre on St. Marks Road, but this site is now only staffed between 10.00 – 3.00 on Wednesdays. Our Donations Coordinator may be able to arrange another time to take in your donations if you cannot make this time – please call her on 01902 572 169.

Marianne Simmonds
Administration, Research and Publicity Assistant

The Haven - My Story

I’ve been staying at the Haven for one week and a couple of days. I think the Haven is a good place to be. Since my mom has been here she has been happy. Spending time with my mom now is GREAT. She is having a baby in soon. We will be living at the Haven when my mum has the baby.

My brothers have been calmer since living at the Haven and sometimes helpful to my mum. They can be annoying at times but they are still my brothers. Spending time with the staff sends us daft (in a good way) but when we leave I will be sad. I will miss all the staff that have been kind and generous for letting us live here.

In the future I would like to be a football player because I like sports. I would like to meet all my family I have not met yet. I would like to have a good future and job.

Thank you for everything. By F.S.