Abianda

Abianda is a social enterprise that works with young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence and provides training for the professionals who work with them.

What do Abianda services look like?

Our flagship service is The Star Project, which is a one-to-one support and advocacy service.

Structured programme of topics

Young women follow a structured programme of topics that are designed to help them grow their critical thinking.​

By asking young women the right questions and offering an equal, trusting, and transparent relationship we help them to discover their resilience and competence and to develop the power to make the changes they want in their lives.

We have successfully worked with young women who have unique safeguarding and risk issues due to their ‘gang’ association, and who have complex needs and a history of non-engagement.

Topics covered include:

• healthy and unhealthy relationships

• sexual violence, exploitation and other violence against women and girls (VAWG) issues in the context of ‘gangs’

• anger, power and harm

• trauma

• risks associated with criminal exploitation and violence

• safety planning

We use our unique model of working with young women to create safe spaces and support them to achieve the changes they want in their lives and develop skills and strategies to navigate risk. By keeping our work solution- and future-focused, we keep our spaces safe for young women. They know we will not ask them to share information about their past or their associates, because this could create significant risks for them, and could re-traumatise them.

Advocacy

As well as the structured programme of work, we provide advocacy for young women.

Our advocacy is rights-based and designed to support young women influence decisions affecting their lives. Examples of our advocacy include: young women’s voices being represented in child protection processes; ensuring that young women receive the statutory assessments to which they are entitled; recognising young women as victims of trafficking through the National Referral Mechanism; and supporting our professional partners to recognise young women’s complex needs and vulnerabilities.

As a result of our advocacy, young women independently navigate services, are equal partners in the professional network around them and are more likely to engage in efforts to safeguard them.

​Abianda welcomes all young women and girls to our services. For the avoidance of all doubt, this includes trans women and girls. We also welcome non-binary people if they feel that they have lived experience that aligns with that of women and girls.