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Safe Space is an approach co-developed by St Mungo’s and the London Borough of Camden.
Safe Space is an approach co-developed by St Mungo’s and the London Borough of Camden.
This approach can be adopted by any team (mixed gendered or single sex services) working with women with multiple disadvantage. It can also benefit male clients and support staff. Safe Space is a culture of understanding how trauma, gender and the effects of multiple disadvantage impact our clients’ experience, while acknowledging sexism and inequality within wider society.
Women experiencing homelessness also often have severe, interrelated and complex problems. These usually stem from domestic abuse and other trauma, which contribute to their homelessness and can make recovery even more challenging.
75,000 women and their families are homeless and living in temporary accommodation. Women make up 60% of homeless adults in temporary accommodation, compared with just 51% of adults in England. The latest figures show that, in England, women make up 13% of people sleeping rough.
We aim to create an environment of physical and psychological safety for all the women we support, no matter what service they are accessing.
Our priority is often providing a safe place to live: establishing safety creates a firm foundation for recovery from trauma. We also use our Recovery Approach, which means someone’s personal support plan is rooted in their strengths, experiences – including a practical understanding of their trauma – and goals.
We run dedicated women only services to support women who need a women only environment to feel safe and recover. We also have a wide range of tools and ways of working that support women across all of our services, including mixed provision.
We work with women at all stages of homelessness, including women sleeping rough, women at risk of losing their tenancy, women living in hostels and those moving into independence. Our aim is always to help them out of homelessness for good.
We ran 13 women only services in 2022. 33% of clients in our services were women and we supported 1,767 women in total.
We work with women at all stages of homelessness, including women sleeping rough, women at risk of losing their tenancy, women living in hostels and those moving into independence. Our aim is always to help them out of homelessness for good.
We ran 13 women only services in 2022. 33% of clients in our services were women and we supported 1,767 women in total.
This approach can be adopted by any team (mixed gendered or single sex services) working with women with multiple disadvantage. It can also benefit male clients and support staff. Safe Space is a culture of understanding how trauma, gender and the effects of multiple disadvantage impact our clients’ experience, while acknowledging sexism and inequality within wider society.
We do this through the whole team being trained on gender and trauma, PIE, trauma informed care and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Moving away from an outcomes based approach, instead focusing on offering time and space for clients to stabilise and build trust in services.
Safe Space recognised that if a client doesn’t trust our service she is unlikely to engage with the service offer. Relationships with clients are therefore at the centre of everything the team do. Lead workers offer meetings in a relaxed and informal way.
Offering choice to our clients, we are able to build trust and show ourselves to be non-paternalistic in our care. As a service provider, we can often mimic ‘perpetrator like’ behaviours, e.g. by asking about their drug use. This may feel harassing or invasive to our clients who have experienced trauma. Allowing clients to choose certain options, building choice into many aspects of service, like lead worker, meal planning and meeting locations.
As part of the Safe Space service, we worked with the London Borough of Camden to produce a specific eLearning for all staff working in Camden’s Adult Pathway. This was based on research into the experiences of women in the homelessness pathway in the borough.
The Women’s Safe Space has been key in lifting the voices of women accessing services in Camden and helping to share our support. Our service has developed and changed with the understanding of women’s experiences – what we have learned, and continue to learn, will inform how services are developed and delivered in future.
3 Thomas More Square, Tower Hill, London E1W 1YW | 020 3856 6000 | info@mungos.org
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