'Recognise & Respond: Strengthening advocacy for LGBT+ survivors of domestic abuse is your opportunity to increase awareness and understanding of LGBT+ people’s experiences of domestic abuse, additional barriers this group faces in access to services and gain knowledge on strategies tackling these barriers. The conference is also your space to discuss the need for inclusive policy and service delivery and examine what is being done and what more can be done to support and protect LGBT+ victims and survivors.

This national event will bring together delegates from across the LGBT, domestic abuse, VAWG, health, housing, and victim care sectors, including:

• Victim support organisations and IDVAs
• Healthcare staff
• Housing providers
• Local authority social care teams
• Safeguarding adults board managers / members
• Home Office, Communities and Local Government representatives

Conference Chairs :

Camille Kumar, Policy Specialist – LGBT+ Equality; Race Equality, National Education

Union

James Rowlands, Independent Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Consultant

 

Welcome & Introduction

09:00 Registration & refreshments  

10:00 Welcome & opening address; Peter Kelley, Head of Domestic Abuse Services, Galop  

 

Session 1 - Special Keynotes

Funder’s perspective

10:15 Baroness Williams of Trafford, Minister for Equalities, Government Equalities Office

10:30 Duncan Shrubsole, Director of Policy, Communications and Research, Lloyds Bank Foundation

 

Session 2 - Morning Keynotes

Transforming our response to LGBT+ domestic abuse

This session will assess the scale and nature of domestic abuse in LGBT+ communities across the UK, outline barriers in access to services, and assess the proposed Domestic Abuse Bill and its relevance to LGBT+ victims/survivors.

10:50 Dr Jasna Magić, Domestic Abuse and Policy Officer, Galop

11:10 Christina Warner, Barrister, 1MCB Chambers

11.30 Question & answer session

11:50 Break

 

Session 3 - Roundtable Discussion

12:10 Enhancing the safety and access to justice for LGBT+ victims/survivors

The roundtable will explore how LGBT+ organisations, domestic abuse and women services can work together to strengthen activities to identify and support LGBT+ victims/survivors of domestic abuse.

Chair: James Rowlands, Independent Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Consultant

Guest speakers:

• Peter Kelley, Head of Domestic Abuse Service, Galop
• Kate Dale, Joint Head of Client Services, Rise
• Sophie Beer O’Brian, Project Co-ordinator, Wellbeing, The LGBT Foundation
• Shabana Kausar, Strategic Lead, VAWG Strategic Partnership
• Collette Eaton-Harris, Senior Knowledge Hub Advisor, SafeLives

13:20 Lunch & networking break 

 

Session 4 - Case Studies 1

Intersectional faces of domestic violence

The case studies will explore how the intersection of disability, ethnicity and LGBT+ identities shape experiences of, and responses against domestic abuse.

14:10 Alice Lobb, LGBT Domestic Abuse Project Coordinator, Rainbow Bridge

14:30 Rahni Binjie, Pathfinder Capacity Building Co-ordinator, Imkaan

14:50 Question & answer session

15:10 Break

 

Session 5 - Case Studies 2

Domestic abuse and homelessness

The case studies will address the relationship between domestic abuse and homelessness among LGBT+ young people and discuss how the housing sector can strengthen responses and improve services for LGBT+ victims/survivors.

15:30 Catherine Bewley, Head of Sexual Violence Support Service, Galop and Sarah Webb, Young LGBT+ Person Caseworker, LGBT Jigsaw

15:50 Tina Wathern, Director of National Engagement, Stonewall Housing

16:10 Question & answer session

16:30 Closing remarks

 

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Baroness Williams was appointed Minister of State for the Home Office in July 2016. As well as dealing with all Home Office business in the House of Lords, she is the Home Office Minister responsible for data, identity and integration. In addition Baroness Williams was appointed Minister for Equalities in January 2018. Prior to joining the Home Office, she was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government in May 2015. She is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Peter Kelley

Peter is the Head of Domestic Abuse Service for Galop. Peter has worked at Galop for over 11 years as a researcher and advocate, and has managed Galop’s domestic abuse service for the last 6 years. Before joining Galop, Peter was involved in research and teaching.

Duncan Shrubsole

Duncan is the Director of Policy, Communications and Research at Lloyds Bank Foundation. He leads the Foundation’s programmes and work to influence policy and practice around small charities and selected national priorities. Before joining the Foundation, Duncan worked for nearly 9 years at Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, leading their campaigning, policy, research, communication and best practice activities, where he secured a number of changes to policy and practice.

Prof Catherine Donovan

Catherine is Professor of Sociology at the University of Durham. She has spent nearly 30 years researching the intimate and family lives of lesbians, gay men and, more recently, bisexual and trans people. Her most recent work includes the first comparative study of love and violence in same sex and heterosexual relationships, and the first in-depth study exploring the use of violence in the relationships of LGB and/or T people. She is currently researching magistrates’ training on domestic violence and abuse, together with perceptions of risk and safety, and interpersonal violence on campus.

Dr Jasna Magić

Jasna is a Domestic Abuse and Policy Officer at Galop, where she leads a national project raising awareness on LGBT+ people’s experiences with domestic violence. Jasna is an experienced practitioner and has over 15 years of experience in research, campaigning and policy work in the area of gender and sexual orientation-based violence. She is also a published author and has worked with a number of human rights and anti-violence governmental and non-governmental organisations in the UK and abroad.

Christina Warner

Christina is a family barrister at 1MCB Chambers, with specialism in matters concerning domestic abuse, injunctive relief and access to children. Having been published by numerous leading legal journals, Christina has written on subjects such as gender-based violence and the impact of violence and abuse on families and children on a domestic and international level. Christina has also worked at the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court where she contributed to the draft policy on children and towards prosecutions involving the recruitment of child soldiers and victims of sexual slavery.​

Kate Dale

Kate is Joint Head of Client Services at RISE, Brighton's specialist women's and LGBT domestic violence provider. Kate has a background in therapeutic work and feminist activism and is an advocate for providing safe specialist services for vulnerable groups and people.

Collette Eaton-Harris

Collette is a Senior Knowledge Hub Advisor for SafeLives.  In her former role as a Young Person’s Domestic Abuse Worker, Collette created a local LGBT+ forum which brought together a number of agencies and sought to address the low referral rate of LGBT+ people into the domestic abuse service. Last year Collette headed up the SafeLives Spotlight on improving the response to LGBT+ people experiencing domestic abuse during which she interviewed a range of experts from across the country, and co-wrote the final report.

Shabana Kausar

Shabana is the Strategic Lead for the Violence against Women and Girls Strategic Partnership which acts across the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster. She has worked actively on ending gender-based violence on a national and international level, through training, policy work and developing best practice. She is on the Board of Trustees of ‘My Body Back’ which supports sexual violence survivors accessing sexual health services and also a Trustee for ‘The Sky Project’, a charity focusing on ending forced marriage and so called ‘honour’-based violence.

Charlotte Cooke

Charlotte is an Assistant Director of Services at the LGBT Foundation. Charlotte has been with the Foundation for over 5 years, initially leading the organisation’s volunteering strategy and more recently as a strategic lead for all of the services. Charlotte is a qualified counsellor with more than a decades experience in the community and voluntary sector, and has a strong background in mental health and the development of user-led community-based services. Charlotte has been involved with the LGBT Foundation’s Domestic Abuse service since its inception, and has led the team providing this unique support for the past 2 years.

Alice Lobb

Alice is the LGBT Domestic Abuse Project Coordinator for Rainbow Bridge. Prior to her work within LGBT+ Domestic Abuse, she worked for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and the associated victims 24/7 support line. Alice specialises in autism in her personal and professional life and has frontline experience with learning disabilities, providing her with a deeper understanding of disorders including dyspraxia, Down syndrome and the various forms of dementia. Due to her experience of working with vulnerable people, she is an active supporter and advocate for minority groups.

Rahni Binjie

Rahni is a Pathfinder Capacity Building Co-ordinator at Imkaan, the only UK-based, second-tier women's organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women and girls. Rahni has over 20 years’ experience of working in the violence against women and girls sector. Rahni has worked as a frontline practitioner, counsellor, team leader, senior manager and CEO. She has been instrumental in leading on the strategic direction, design and delivery of frontline services including refuge, outreach, counselling and training provision for Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ women and girls impacted by VAWG.

Catherine Bewley

Catherine is Head of Sexual Violence Support Services at Galop, casework and well-being service working with LGBT+ survivors of sexual violence aged 13 and above. She is co-chair of the Metropolitan Police Rape Reference Group, an independent advisory group that scrutinises policy, practice and development around rape and serious sexual violence in London; Project Manager of the LGBT and Male Survivors Partnership with Survivors UK and the Havens; and manager of a national research project due to start this summer scoping LGBT+ people’s experience of sexual violence.

Sarah Webb

Sarah has worked within the homelessness and prevention sector for 10 years. For the last 3 years, Sarah has worked in the LGBT Jigsaw partnership project, providing vital young people advocacy support across both Galop and Stonewall Housing. Within her role, Sarah is the only specialised young persons’ case worker leading on high risk and complex needs safeguarding cases. Sarah supports young people, aged 13-25, who have experienced domestic violence, sexual violence and/or hate crime.

Tina Wathern

Tina is the Director of Education and Engagement for Stonewall Housing and is responsible for Stonewall Housing’s national work. Before joining Stonewall Housing Tina worked for a number of years in the VAWG sector. In her role as coordinator of the housing network for 6 years her role included raising the profile of the Housing Situation for Older LGBT people at a national, regional and local level and developing the inclusion standard for older LGBT housing, care and support services. Tina has recently finished coordinating an LGBT domestic abuse accommodation based project across Manchester, London and Brighton.

 

 

Conference chairs:

Camille Kumar

Camille has worked in the ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector for over 15 years in a variety of advocacy, policy and strategic roles in Australia and the UK.   Her work has included providing advocacy support to trafficking survivors, working at Imkaan supporting BME women’s organisations with practice development and sustainability, and developing a unique specialist service for young survivors of sexual violence at West London Rape Crisis. Camille is a trustee of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) and is the LGBT+ and race policy specialist at the National Education Union.

James Rowlands

James is a Doctoral Researcher at Sussex University, where he is researching the part that Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) play in the Coordinated Community Response. James originally trained as a social worker and an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA). James set up the first advocacy service for gay, bisexual and heterosexual men in Wales (the Dyn Project) and has 14 years of experience in the domestic abuse sector. He also serves on the Board of Respect, the United Kingdom’s membership organisation for work with domestic violence perpetrators, men and young people.

 

Register your place here: tinyurl.com/LGBT-dv-conference

This event is free to attend. Upon registration you will be asked to pay £20 deposit to secure your place. All attendees will receive their ‘deposit’ funds within 5-7 business days after the event ends, depending on their bank. In case of a no-show, you will not be eligible for a refund. Exceptions may be made under certain conditions, with at least 48 hours prior notice.

The event will accommodate 80-90 delegates. In case of high interested we reserve the right to limit the number of places per organisation.

The conference will be held at a:

Resource for London,

356 Holloway Road,

N7 6PA, London

 

Owned by the Trust for London and managed by Ethical Property, Resource for London is conveniently located on the Holloway Road, seven minutes' walk from Holloway Road underground station.

To plan your journey using public transport please visit the Transport for London website.

For more details - including information on local buses and car parking - please visit the venue website. For further information, please contact Galop.

Minister for Equalities Baroness Williams Keynote speech

As delivered at Galop's 'Recognise & Respond: Strengthening advocacy for LGBT+ survivors of domestic abuse' conference:

I am most grateful to Galop for inviting me here today to address you on what I think is a really important topic, and actually one that has been on my mind for some time now.

And as I was thinking about what I might say to you one word keeps coming to mind, and that’s courage.

The courage it must take to hold your same-sex partner’s hand in public.

The courage that’s needed to go out into the world and be yourself as an LGBT person.

And the courage that you need to speak out when a place that you should feel safest — your home — isn’t safe for you any more.

I am in a very fortunate position because I’m the Home Office Minister and an Equalities Minister, and I see first hand the impact domestic violence and abuse can have; and the courage that survivors have.

I am fortunate because, as a minister for both these departments, I get to see the brilliant work that organisations like Galop and those represented here today carry out to support victims of domestic violence and abuse. And I also get to do something to help.

In July 2018, the Government Equalities Office published the results of the LGBT Survey.

More than 108,000 people responded to that survey, making it the largest domestic survey of its kind anywhere in the world.

It revealed some of the experiences that LGBT people had in a wide range of areas; some of the most shocking were about things that had happened in their own homes.

The survey asked whether respondents had experienced any negative incidents due to being LGBT, or being thought to be LGBT, involving someone that they lived with in the 12 months preceding the survey.

Around 3 in 10 respondents had experienced some kind of negative incident involving someone that they lived with.

The experiences they reported do not make for comfortable reading:

• 14% reported that they’d been a victim of verbal harassment, insults or other hurtful comments
• 14% reported that someone had disclosed they were LGBT without their consent
• And 9% reported coercive or controlling behaviour

Around 4 in 10 of those who reported a negative incident said that their own parents and guardians had been the perpetrators. Around 2 in 10 said it was either a partner or an ex-partner.

These are people that they were meant to be able to trust; but they let them down.

Greater Manchester Police are one of the first police forces in the country to record LGBT cases of domestic abuse separately — similar to how all police forces record hate crime.

In 2017/18, the force recorded a total of 775 cases of domestic abuse amongst LGBT people. And of course that’s the reported ones.

In isolation, these statistics are shocking enough; but they are not the end of the story.

In March, I visited Independent Choices — it’s a domestic abuse service that’s based in Manchester — and I got to speak to one of their independent domestic violence advisors who works directly with LGBT victims. Seeing how that service runs; how it recognises and responds to the distinct needs of LGBT victims and survivors really helped to put the numbers from the LGBT survey into perspective.

That visit really brought me back to that word courage — and that you really shouldn’t need courage to walk through your own front door, especially when as an LGBT person, you already needed so much courage to walk out of it.

The statistics. The stories. They motivate us, both at the Home Office and at the Government Equalities Office, to act so that everyone, no matter who you are or where you come from, can feel safe both inside your home and outside of it.

As a Government we are completely committed to transforming the response to domestic abuse. And that’s why we’re introducing the Domestic Abuse Bill and a wider action plan to tackle it.

The draft Domestic Abuse Bill and wider activities set out in our recent consultation response on this issue will help to ensure that victims have the confidence to come forward and report their experience, safe in the knowledge that the justice system and other agencies will do everything that they can to protect and support them and their children, and also to pursue their abuser.

The Bill will introduce a statutory definition of domestic abuse for the first time. The statutory definition will ensure that all forms of domestic abuse are properly understood, considered unacceptable and actively challenged across statutory agencies and in public attitudes.

We will also be introducing statutory guidance to support the definition. This guidance will provide more detail on the features of domestic abuse, including gender and sexual orientation, and the types of abuse which may be experienced by specific groups.

We have also committed to create a new role of Domestic Abuse Commissioner. The Commissioner will adopt a specific focus on the needs of victims and survivors of domestic abuse from minority or marginalised groups with particular needs, including LGBT victims and survivors.

These are just some of the changes we are making in law to ensure victims and survivors of domestic know that they will be supported and protected, that is the most important thing.

As with any issue though, changing the law will only go so far. We recognise the distinct needs that LGBT victims and survivors of domestic abuse have, separate from their non-LGBT counterparts.

Evidence from the National LGBT Survey showed us the value that LGBT victims and survivors place on dedicated and tailored support services that are designed to meet obviously their unique needs. That is why we provided Galop with £500,000 to build that capacity and deliver support to LGBT victims of domestic abuse. I’m sorry that you had to do it in such a hurry, such is sometimes the way with government.

But what you’re doing is providing a targeted approach that will deliver a national casework and inter-agency support service. It will ensure that more LGBT victims and survivors have access to the appropriate support and the services that they need.

The project will facilitate a national step change in knowledge and understanding on LGBT domestic violence through the development and use of technology. Galop will deliver a campaign to raise awareness within LGBT communities and increase the number of LGBT people actually reporting domestic violence and seeking out the help that they need.

The project will also provide training and consultancy to deliver the knowledge and understanding of the needs and experiences of LGBT victims of domestic violence and abuse in statutory, voluntary and LGBT organisations that work with victims of domestic abuse.

It’s a very good programme of activity, and we are delighted to be working with you on this issue.

As I draw my remarks to a close, I want to return to the findings from the National LGBT Survey.

At the end of the survey, we gave people the chance to tell us anything they wanted, and they had 500 words to do it.

Some people chose to tell us about their experience of domestic abuse.

One person — a lesbian lady from Devon — shared their story: and it demonstrates powerfully why we at the Home Office and at the Government Equalities Office care so much about this issue.

She said:

“We do not report it as we are so used to homophobic behaviour that we keep our mouths shut.

“We are afraid of the police laughing at us.

“We are afraid of the humiliation of having to say we were raped by another woman.

“We are afraid that no-one will take us seriously.”

That’s is the tragedy and the reality of domestic abuse. It’s a tragedy that people are stripped of their courage to speak out.

94% of respondents to the National LGBT Survey who had experienced a negative incident said that the most serious incident they had experienced had not been reported, either by themselves or by someone else.

I’m going to say that again, because it is so shocking: more than 9 in 10 of the most serious incidents experienced were not reported.

And why? Because people thought it was too minor, not serious enough and that it happens all the time. Because they were too scared to speak out. That has to end.

I hope that you get the most out of today’s conference and I thank you for listening to me and I look forward to working with you all in what is I think a massive challenge - driving out domestic violence, within the non-LGBT community and with the additional challenges within the LGBT community as well.

Thank you very much for listening.

Presentations

Alice Lobb- Rainbow Bridges

Christina Warner - on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill

Jasna Magic- on LGBT+ experiences of domestic abuse in the UK

Rahni Binjie - on the importance of intersectionality in domestic abuse work