Our approach and impact

At Anawim, we equip our caseworkers with the flexibility to fully support women. We know that one to one support is vital for women to work through multiple and complex needs. 

Women face a multitude of barriers and each woman has her own set of unique challenges to overcome. Our case management model focuses on meeting women’s needs in the context of a structured plan involving intensive interventions with clear timeframes and objectives. 

Anawim’s services are both trauma and gender responsive, meaning that we ensure our women’s past experiences are at the heart of our approach and that challenges unique to women are factored into every woman’s support provision. Through case management, we develop trusting relationships with our women and create space for women to share their experiences, fears, hopes and dreams with us so that together, we can change their lives. 

All women have access to free counselling onsite with one of our dedicated volunteer counsellors. The lasting consequences of abuse and trauma can be devastating. Even decades later women can struggle to come to terms with their experiences. 

Having a safe space to talk and feel heard with a trusted and professional counsellor is essential for recovery. Our counsellors help women along their journeys to self-discovery, healing, enhancing and in some cases even saving lives.

Over the past year, we have been able to deliver more than 1200 counselling sessions to more than 130 women. 

“Undiscovered or buried feelings are brought to the surface and people with certain addictions or mental health issues can benefit greatly from being able to express painful feelings to a person who is totally neutral, unbiased and non-judgemental, but can ask the right questions tactfully and with compassion and empathy.”

Anawim offers a variety of courses and one to one sessions, ranging from employability and financial literacy through to numeracy, reading and writing. We also have courses designed to promote independence and increase self-esteem such as confidence building, mindfulness, art therapy, parenting and healthy relationships. 

Reassurance that course participation is a choice is liberating and empowering for women who may have been involved with the criminal justice system or abusive relationships. Learning in a group setting offers invaluable opportunities to develop listening skills, the ability to regulate emotions, constructively share experiences, confront challenges and accommodate other people’s discomfort. 

Anawim’s therapeutic psychologist-led courses which address deep trauma are designed to identify and understand psychological, emotional and physical symptoms and how they are related to women’s individual experiences. 

REDD (Regulating Emotions and Dealing with Distress) and TREM (Trauma, Recovery and Empowerment Model) both provide women with an opportunity to explore their sense of self and pathways to healing in a trusted, safe and reflective group setting. Watch our introductory video below. You can also find translations in Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Farsi, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Somali and Urdu here.

“Doing many personal development courses has helped me grow as a person. I accept I cannot change others but I can change me. I can find my strengths and I can develop my weaknesses.” – Kylisha*

All of our caseworkers are able to work with women who are dealing with addiction and address the root causes through support to access GP appointments and rehabilitation services. Women are able to access trauma and emotional resilience courses, and caseworkers support women to build up self-esteem and break free from addictions.

Domestic abuse support covers historic and current abuse, including violence, financial and emotional abuse, coercive control, identifying abusive behaviour and unhealthy relationships.  Where necessary, we support our women to report perpetrators to the police and leave abusive relationships as well as access safe accommodation for themselves and their children. 

In 2019, 43% of women we supported disclosed current or historic experiences of domestic abuse. 60% of these women also had children. 

Get support here.

We offer drop-in services at our Women’s Centre in Balsall Heath, for any woman experiencing challenges and in need of confidential, non-judgmental advice and guidance with emotional or practical matters. 

Through our drop-in service, women can also access food parcels, toiletries, sanitary products and clothes if needed. Find out more about our drop in here.

New Chance is aimed at women who have committed first time or low-level offending, diverting them away from the criminal justice system and reducing the risk of reoffending, as well as reducing local crime and increasing community safety. 

Delivered in partnership with the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, this project has grown from strength to strength, overachieving on its targets, and developing an essential service that has the potential to transform lives. Due to its success in Birmingham and the Black Country it is now being rolled out across the West Midlands. 

Moving forward, New Chance is adapting to include victims of domestic violence who, prior to their arrest, may not have a history of offending behaviour, or women who have committed low level crimes and would benefit greatly from our specialised intervention.  

Anawim’s Health and Justice Vulnerability Service is a partnership with practitioners from Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. This award-winning service involves Support, Time and Recovery Workers and Peer Mentors working together to provide an effective support system.

Women identified for specialised mental health support after an arrest are referred to Anawim’s 12-week programme, which can lead on to a longer, more intensive plan if required. The team also aims to improve liaison between the criminal justice system and health and social care agencies.

Our employability skills sessions offer a range of options from one to one to  group settings and work experience opportunities for all women coming towards the end of their journeys with Anawim.

All caseworkers support women with money advice, debt management, access to benefits and financial literacy. This helps women become better able to budget and manage money responsibly to ensure basic needs for themselves and their children are met, reducing dependency on benefits, increasing independence and freedom for women who may have been financially abused in relationships. This helps women to feel better able to confront debt, reducing the risk of poor mental health and having to resort to adverse coping strategies such as alcohol misuse, self-harm or suicide ideation.

Anawim’s freephone Helpline is open Monday to Thursday 9am-5pm and 9am-4:30pm on Friday, and can be accessed via 0330 056 0065, for any woman who needs it. Anawim’s female specialist workers are available to discuss any or all of their worries. 

Solving housing problems can be difficult for women with complex issues, as many organisations now use online systems that women without a phone or internet access can’t tap into. There are many other major barriers for women, such as lack of confidence, time, social skills or language skills, as well as the presence of fear, learning disabilities, illiteracy and personality disorders. 

To combat this, we can support women with debt and arrears issues through our drop-in service – whether it is helping women improve their understanding of financial matters; supporting them into getting a job or ensuring that any owed benefits are claimed in order to sustain tenancies and prevent homelessness. 

Anawim’s mental health support is both preventative and reactive. Usually a local GP is the gateway for women seeking help with mental health difficulties, however this is only available at set times and these services are extremely stretched in the current climate. 

Cuts to local mental health services have seen the number of complex mental health referrals soar in recent years – highlighting an urgent need for more holistic services to support the ever increasing need. At the moment, 75% of all the women we are supporting have mental health needs – it is the most common need that women present with.

Our Blended Service at Ardenleigh Forensic Unit offers gender specific and sensitive treatment through enrichment activities, one to one casework, peer support and family liaison support for women from the West Midlands who are detained under the Mental Health Act and have a history of actual or potential harm to other people. 

Funded by NHS England and working in partnership with Ardenleigh Secure Women’s Service, we aim to reduce the length of the patient’s stay in hospital and introduce rehabilitative support, enabling women to reintegrate back into the community. 

As well as ensuring that the service is trauma-responsive, we offer peer mentoring opportunities, facilitate group training around how to manage finances, cooking, life skills, social engagement and a programme of co-designed out-of-hours enrichment activities. 

We try to keep women closer to home and their supporting family networks where possible and offer family therapy. Ensuring the wellbeing of staff is also a priority, whilst the team work together to support women. 

Anawim regularly visits women in HMP Foston Hall and HMP Drake Hall, to build relationships with them, to address their offending behaviour, and to identify women who might require additional support.

For some of our women in prison it’s the first time anybody has listened to their story and the first time anyone has acknowledged that past trauma has played a role in their current situation. This helps women to have hope, to see that they can have a life after prison and that there are options for everyone to make positive progress. It supports women ‘through the gate’, and helps them to thrive in the community after prison.

We also have Enrichment Workers in the CAMEO unit at HMP Foston Hall supporting with challenges in prison. Therapeutic activities are provided for women in the evenings and at weekends when women are most vulnerable after having worked through deep trauma. This work is significantly reducing incidents of self-harm within the prison.

Whether it is support to overcome historic abuse, or support with a current situation, women can access specialised advice and guidance. We support women with a broad range of issues and can also help to report incidents to the police. 

Sexual exploitation is unfortunately very common and disguised by unhealthy relationships, coercive control and hidden within prostitution. Anawim provides access to sexual health services as well as counselling for trauma, and support to resolve other issues which have arisen in connection with sexual trauma. Read more about our sexual trauma services here 

Anawim has a safeguarding policy in place and disclosure checks are carried out on all staff and volunteers working with children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Staff regularly  feedback information on each woman and any involved children, as well as any additional safeguarding concerns including any reports of domestic abuse and mental health challenges. This includes if any Safe and Well checks have been conducted or any referrals made to Social Services, as well as any significant updates.

 The Safeguarding Team meets weekly to go over this information, feedback to caseworkers and review incidents that have occurred in the week. Our Safeguarding Team and staff all receive appropriate training and we deliver an in-house Level 1 and Level 2 safeguarding course for all staff.

Safeguarding concerns around substance misuse are dealt with in conjunction with women’s caseworkers from supporting agencies, and mental health issues are supported by community mental health teams. 

As a physical centre, Anawim facilitates the development of positive social connections through mixed courses, work experience and encouraging employability skills learning and progression. As well as providing the opportunity to be on interview panels, peer mentoring roles and ambassador roles, we offer opportunities for our women to share their stories as part of events, research projects, lobbying and policy campaigning.