Achievements
The 2003 Award of Distinction was awarded to Imkaan by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London at City Hall on 25 November 2004.
The award was given in recognition of Imkaan's outstanding and innovative work in the specialist refuge sector as well as its involvemnt in furthering the aims of the London Domestic Violence Strategy to ensure that London is a safer place for women and children escaping violence.
Since Imkaan's conception, the organisation has achieved national recognition as a representative voice for Asian women’s refuges and as a result Imkaan has developed a reputation for delivering quality outputs. We have managed this process with a small but flexible staff (team on average 2.5 workers), a dedicated Management Committee and other skilled and experienced advisors, advocates, consultants and volunteers to support Imkaan training programmes and research.
Since 1999 we have:
- Completed a national survey and needs mapping exercise which provided base line data on the service profile and personnel of South Asian women’s refuges and identified the short, medium and long-term training, support and funding needs of the sector.
- Co-ordinated a sectoral meeting attended by over 20 organisations to develop a strategic direction for the future of South Asian women’s refuges and shape the future work of Imkaan.
- Provided legal Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Accredited training on Marriage and Divorce in Islamic Law (Sharia Law) attended by 52 delegates including solicitors, barristers, government agencies and specialist refuges.
- Provided skills building training on the new Supporting People programme introduced by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) in 2003 for South Asian refuge staff and managers.
- Provided training to refuge staff on Immigration, Asylum and Human Rights, Housing Law and Policy.
- Provided training on Asylum and Human Rights accredited by the Law Society and the Bar Council for 40 legal advocates.
- Planned and delivered a number of discussions and focus groups on a range of legal and policy issues working in partnership with a range of contributors including Women’s Aid Federation of England (WAFE), SITRA, ODPM, and Housing Associations Charitable Trust, this included co-ordinating a stakeholder meeting with ODPM, HACT and the specialist refuge sector to address the impact of Supporting People on the Domestic Violence Sector.
- Contributed to government, statutory and voluntary policy, funding and service planning forums including: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Domestic Violence Project Board, The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Domestic Violence Group, The Greater London Domestic Violence Project (GLDVP) forums and sub-groups, and the Women’s National Commission (WNC) Violence Against Women Working Group.
- Developed and distributed 2000 policy briefings to 500 organisations on issues such as Supporting People, domestic violence and the law, immigration and asylum legislation and children.
- Attracted over 200 policy-makers, government officials, statutory agencies, funders and service providers to Imkaan's standing national conference on the impact of violence on children.
- Completed the process of becoming an independent organisation in our own right.
- Set up two regional network forums (one in London and one in the Midlands) for South Asian Women’s refuges and facilitated bi-monthly regional meetings of the forums attended by an average of 20 refuges.
- Supported 30 South Asian women’s refuges through our capacity building work, enabling them to enhance their skills and knowledge on immigration and asylum, recruitment and personnel, access to solicitors and homelessness advice.
