Related blogs
No items found.
Back
Supporting survivors of domestic abuse
Domestic abuse affects one in four women in England and Wales. But its impact is not evenly felt, with Black, Asian and minoritised women facing disproportionate barriers to safety and recovery. As demand for services grows and funding remains stretched, creative forms of support show what recovery can look like – from culturally specific support to trauma-informed homes. Journalist Kitty Melrose reports.
Escaping domestic abuse is difficult for every survivor. Rebuilding a life afterwards can mean navigating housing insecurity, immigration barriers, racism and culturally insensitive services – challenges that disproportionately affect Black and minoritised women.
In England and Wales, one in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, and on average, one woman is killed by a current or former partner every five days. Research also shows that people from mixed heritage backgrounds are more likely to experience higher rates of domestic abuse, and Black women are more likely to face repeat victimisation than women from any other ethnic group.
‘Nearly every institution – from media to policymakers – fails to give Black women the platform they deserve, meaning the experiences of Black survivors are often trivialised or ignored,’ says Gemma Sherrington, CEO of Refuge, the largest specialist domestic abuse charity in the UK.
‘Culturally specific services are not about separation, but about ensuring more equitable access to support’
Sherrington says survivors’ experiences are shaped by intersecting factors including race, disability, immigration status, faith and culture. ‘Systemic prejudice, discrimination and entrenched societal inequalities often mean that marginalised survivors face additional obstacles to safe and inclusive support.
‘Our frontline teams spend every day working with Black survivors whose experiences of accessing support have been impacted by the compounded barriers of misogyny and racism. ‘[Many] tell us that they fear reporting to the police, while those who do often encounter inadequate responses, ranging from poor understanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse to outright racism and victim-blaming.’
These inequalities underline the importance of specialist services and spaces where Black and minoritised women can see their identity reflected in the support. Refuge’s African and Caribbean service is designed to respond to the ‘very real barriers’ Black survivors face when seeking help. ‘Culturally specific services are not about separation, but about ensuring more equitable access to support,’ says Sherrington.
‘The cases we see are much more complex’
For South Asian women, those barriers can be compounded by immigration issues, language, family expectations and community stigma. Kiran Support Services (KSS) was established to address those gaps. Founded in 1989 by a group of women in Waltham Forest, northeast London, it became one of the UK's first refuges for South Asian women and children affected by domestic abuse.
‘Domestic violence is something that is taboo in our communities. That’s what inspired me to do this work,’ says Amtal Rana, CEO of KSS, who first became involved with the organisation in the early 1990s before joining as a refuge worker in 2003. ‘It received opposition. Councillors, often Asian, male, would say, “If you didn’t exist, our women wouldn’t leave home. These things are normal, part of marriage”.’
Kiran (which means ‘a ray of light’ in Sanskrit) has just opened its fourth refuge. Today, it provides specialist counselling for women in their own languages, immigration advice, drop-in support, advocacy, children's therapy, outreach and resettlement support. ‘In the beginning we were providing refuge accommodation, and support accessing housing, benefits and school places,’ says Rana. ‘Now women are in refuges for anything up to 18 months. The cases we see are much more complex.’
Financial abuse, language barriers and long waits for housing all affect survivors' ability to rebuild their lives, she adds. For many South Asian women domestic abuse can involve multiple perpetrators, not just an abusive partner. ‘It’s not just a husband. It can be fathers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law. Women are navigating coercive control and psychological abuse from extended family members.
‘We’re now also seeing older women, widows, who are experiencing domestic abuse from their older children to do with inheritance, financial abuse, children who want mum to sell up.’
‘Women need stability, dignity and environments that support healing’
For women with insecure immigration status, those pressures can become even more acute. Fear of deportation or losing custody of children can prevent survivors from seeking help or accessing healthcare. Recognising this, Kiran now provides specialist immigration advice and casework. ‘Every woman we have supported through applications for indefinite leave to remain on domestic abuse grounds has been successful,’ says Rana.
Recovery, she says, requires more than physical safety. Women need stability, dignity and environments that support healing. This led Kiran to work with Furnishing Futures, a charity founded by former social worker Emily Wheeler in 2019. It creates fully furnished trauma-informed homes that ‘give hope and dignity to women and children placed in empty social housing after escaping domestic abuse’.
Survivors continue to bear the brunt of the housing crisis, with social housing depleted. Local authority application decisions are often excessively delayed and unsuitable offers to temporary accommodation are made. Less than two per cent of social housing is let furnished, meaning many survivors move into a bare shell: no beds, flooring, curtains or basic appliances, and often return to dangerous situations with their children because it feels unsafe and impossible to start again.
In an interview with the Times earlier this year, Wheeler said that ‘a roof over your head and a tenancy is not a home’ and what women need is ‘to feel safe… to be able to cook a meal for their children and tuck them at night.’ Using donated furniture, alongside partnerships with designers and manufacturers, the organisation transforms at least three homes a week in London into comfortable homes designed to promote recovery and well-being, and reduce poverty and financial strain.
One of Furnishing Futures' ‘proudest projects’ was refurbishing one of Kiran’s seven-bedroom women’s refuges in 2023, using trauma-informed design principles. Rana talks about the impact. ‘The refuge became much more homely. Once women felt settled, they were learning to move on.’
‘Access to safe accommodation is vital in empowering survivors to leave their perpetrator and rebuild their lives,’ says Sherrington. ‘Yet for many women, this is out of reach.’
‘Demand for domestic abuse services continues to grow and evolve’
Refuge says demand for domestic abuse services continues to grow and evolve. Last year its National Domestic Abuse Helpline supported people more than 43,000 times, while referrals relating to technology-facilitated abuse rose by 62 per cent during the first nine months of 2025 compared with the same period the previous year.
Despite the glaring need, specialist ‘by and for’ community services face chronic underfunding, making it even harder for Black, minoritised and migrant women to access the help they need. ‘I don't think commissioning works,’ says Rana. ‘By and for organisations receive an even smaller share of an already limited funding pot. Our own local authority decommissioned our service in 2015. The need is there, but you’re putting life-saving support at risk.’
She says short-term funding makes it difficult to retain specialist staff or develop services that communities rely on. ‘It's amazing that we have an immigration worker who speaks the language, works with women in the refuge and can build trust over time. But if I can’t get funding, we’d have to start referring women elsewhere. The strength of what we do is that it's all under one roof.’
Research by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner found that 67 per cent of Black and marginalised survivors wanted to receive support delivered ‘by and for’ their own community. That’s why Refuge is also calling for sustained investment in specialist domestic abuse services, arguing that the government’s ambition to reduce violence against women and girls cannot be achieved without properly funding the organisations supporting survivors every day.
Despite these pressures, Rana says it is the women who keep her motivated. She recalls one survivor who arrived at Kiran depressed and facing complex immigration difficulties. ‘We helped her secure immigration status, access counselling and reunite with her daughter who was in India. She contacted us recently with a different request. She said, “I came to you when I was broken. You helped me to overcome everything. Now I want to give something back and help other women”.’
For Rana, those moments are a reminder of why specialist services matter. ‘When you see a woman who's been empowered, any woman, that’s hope.’
Learn more about the work of Kiran, Refuge and Furnishing Futures:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Runnymede Trust.
Join the fight for racial justice: support the Runnymede Trust’s work by making a donation.
Photo: A demonstration by Refuge outside the Houses of Parliament as part of its ‘Home is Where the Hurt is’ campaign, 10 March 2026 © Stacey Osbourne
Write for us
Why not write for Britain's number one race equality think tank? We are always interested in receiving pitches from both new and established writers, on all matters to do with race.
Share this blog
Related blogs
No items found.
Join our mailing list
Join our community and stay up to date with our latest work and news.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
