Women's Services Map
Last week (15 September 2023) the National Women’s Justice Coalition launched a great new resource – the Women’s Services Map which is the UK’s first directory of services for women in contact with the criminal justice system. The resource is very well thought out and includes a searchable map, a database of women’s centres and a database of services.
The National Women’s Justice Coalition
The NWJC came about in Autumn 2021 when a group of women’s sector leaders agreed to formalise an approach to strengthening the voice of women’s centres and specialist organisations working with women affected by the Criminal Justice System and build capacity for influencing change.
The NWJC’s vision is to achieve social justice and justice for women by driving systems change to reduce the stigmatisation of, and improve outcomes for, women affected by the Criminal Justice System.
The NWJC seeks to become the ‘go-to’ group for expertise on policy and good practice for women affected by Criminal Justice System. Its strategic aims include:
- Sustainably funded support services for women involved in, or at risk of being involved in the Criminal Justice System in every community, including access to a women’s centre.
- High quality, trauma-responsive, gender-specific specialist services that are evidence-based and continuously improving.
- Inclusive, anti-racist approaches that address individual and structural inequalities.
- Women-led services that reflect the priorities, needs and real lives of the women they serve.
The coalition comprises 19 organisations who are expert in delivering trauma-informed, women-centred casework support to women affected by the Criminal Justice System. Many of the partners offer services through women’s centres and from women-only premises, both locally and regionally. Other partners are national women’s organisations that provide specialist services to women. You can see a full list here.
You can also follow the latest news from the NWJC on Twitter/X via @weareNWJC.
Services by specialism
The map also provides women and professionals the opportunity to browse services by sixteen different specialist areas of provision ranging from accommodation to volunteering. You can see further details here. The sixteen specialisms in full, complete with the number of services currently associated with that specialism are:
- Accommodation 62
- Behavioural Support 90
- Bereavement, Grief and Loss 19
- Domestic Abuse 78
- Education, Training and Employment 92
- Family, Parenting and Relationships 84
- Finance, Benefit and Debt 80
- Immigration and Asylum 11
- Legal4Mental Health 95
- Peer to Peer 30
- Perinatal 14
- Physical Health & Wellbeing 89
- Sexual Violence and Exploitation 66
- Substance Misuse 60
- Volunteering 28
Importantly, the NWJC is committed to continually adding other women’s centres and women’s specialist services to this directory.
If your organisation would like to be featured and currently delivers services for women and girls in contact with the criminal justice system, and/or runs women’s centres in the UK, please contact them for more information.
Listings on the Women’s Services Map website are free.
