A year in the Life of The New Futures Project: We look back on 2024 (Part two – July to December)

As we noted in part one of this review of 2024, the second half of the year began with the election of Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

So, we opened July by stating we were were desperate to be impressed by the new administration. That remains the case.

Areas of policy which were simply not discussed enough during the campaign – most obviously, women’s welfare and safety – remain largely unaddressed.

The alleviation of poverty  must be at the forefront of Starmer’s thinking.

Also this month, senior police officers called for a concerted nationwide effort to tackle what they described as an “epidemic” of violence against women and girls.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council, (NPCC), said forces across England and Wales were recording 3,000 such offences every day – but added that the true number was likely to be higher.

In response, Della Kagure Brown, director of The New Futures Project, said: “We have known for some time there needs to be a significant change in the way men and boys are socialised.

“And, until this happens and women are respected as equals there is unlikely to be any change.

“Meanwhile organisations like ours who support women and girls who are victims of male violence are underfunded and under-resourced.”

Earlier in the summer, we contacted almost 200 companies across the city and county to ask them to think seriously about supporting our work with some of the most vulnerable women and young people in our community.

Mail order fashion specialist Selective Marketplace was one of the first to get behind our Big Business Appeal and to indicate their willingness to get involved.

Just a couple of weeks later they delivered five large boxes of clothing to our home in London Road, Leicester.

A spokesperson for Selective Marketplace said: “We are pleased we can help, even in a small way, The New Futures Project.

“We have nothing but admiration for those involved in this project and we look forward to supporting them again in the future.”

We said thank you and goodbye to three university students who spent a month with us, directly supporting women who drop in seek our help.

Alexandra Danellakis, Chloe Appleby and Harriet Trotter – did a wonderful job.

Crucially, the time clients spend here helps us get to know them and work out what we can do to best help them.

Just as important is the good company they find here – and Chloe, Alexandra and Harriet excelled in this respect.

Alexandra, a psychology undergraduate at The University of Leicester, said: “The time here has gone by so quickly. I have loved it here.

“These women are some of the sweetest and strongest people I will ever meet.

“So many of them them have told me this place is a life-saver, that they had given up but coming here has given them hope for the future.”

We began August with another story thanking a donor for supporting our work.

We were delighted to receive a wonderful out-of-the-blue gift in the shape of two large Royal Mail sacks filled with hundreds of bras.

It was an extremely generous donation from a Leicester-based charity called The Your Smalls Appeal, which has been providing bras, pants, sanitary pads and other essentials to women and girls around the world, particularly those in developing countries, since 2016.

The underwear they delivered to us was a welcome addition to our clothing bank.

It was their second donation to us and they have told us they intend to help us again.

We are determined to find and support some of the most hard-to-reach women in our community – those who are involved in sex work in massage parlours and private homes.

In September, our important outreach work in this area was boosted by a grant of £20,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund.

We told the Lottery, which has been a fantastic supporter of our work over the years, that some of these women are facing physical and sexual violence – not to mention financial exploitation – by sauna owners and clients.

Our director, Della said: “We’ve heard stories of saunas where women have had to go through interviews or inductions where they have had to provide sexual services to the owner in order to get a job.

“There are cases of women who have been trafficked and are living and working in these places until they have paid off their debt bond.

“However, we have to remember that these can be safer places for women to work when the alternative is the street.

“We want to let these women know there is somewhere they can come to where they won’t be judged  and will be given advice  by people who understand them, know about the law and are concerned for their well-being.”

Also this month, we set out in greater detail a new idea for meeting the growing demand for the counselling services we offer here.

One of the ideas we came up with was low-cost therapy sessions, not here in our home in London Road, but exclusively online and for a fee determined by a client’s ability to pay.

We believe a number of those who seek our help would benefit from this arrangement and would be able to pay for that support on a sliding scale for each hourly session, determined by their income.

Our director Della said women who are in crisis or who have experienced sexual abuse or exploitation would continue to receive free support.

Della said: “We are very proud of this new counselling service and encourage anyone who feels they would benefit to get in touch with us.”

In September the influential mental health organisation the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, (BACP), called for urgent action after official statistics showed suicide rates in England and Wales had reached a 20-year high.

Three-quarters of the recorded deaths were male, but the female suicide rate also reached its highest level since 1994.

The BACP,  the professional body for those who work in members of the counselling professions said, prevention services needed funding.

Staff at The New Futures Project are involved in suicide prevention work in Leicester and the wider county.

In October, we addressed the issue of women and the criminal justice system.

In a speech at the Labour Party conference, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood signalled that the Government was prepared to radically rethink the way the criminal justice system treats female offenders –  confirming it wants to see far fewer women in prison.

This was music to our ears.

We do not believe taking these women away from their families and friends is good for them.

It certainly does not meaningfully serve the public interest.

Also this month, all-round star Billie Piper teamed up with domestic violence charity Refuge to create a compelling short film which gave voice to survivors’ testimonies to illustrate the many faces of abuse.

Billie read the words of real women who had been subjected to physical violence, coercion, financial exploitation or control through technology.

We hear similarly harrowing accounts from women who come to us, particularly those who turn to our counselling service for help dealing with their trauma.

Finally, in October, we asked runners to sign up to help us put together a team to take part in the Leicester 10k race and on Sunday, March 2.

We hope to recruit a team of runners to take part on our behalf. In return, we will provide all the help they need as they seek sponsors.

Every penny raised will help us support some of the most marginalised women and young people in our community.

Our Big Business Appeal introduced us to a number of new friends in the corporate world.

One of them, a company called Myonex decided they wanted to help us, so they visited us to deliver 10 large boxes of everyday essentials for our clients.  

We reported their generous donation in November and, furthermore, they have another 10 boxes still to come.

A few months earlier, we wrote to approximately 180 of the biggest firms in the city and wider county to ask them to support us in any way they could think of.

As the end of the year approached, we were waiting for news from the the National Lottery.

At the beginning of December we were able to confirm we had received a substantial grant.

Putting the project on a stable financial footing, this latest award from the Lottery will fund a vital area of our work – safeguarding women involved in sex work and young people aged 18 to 25 who are at risk of sexual exploitation.

The funding will cover us for the next four years.

The Lottery has been a great supporter of the project over the past 20-plus years.

Our director Della said: “Lots of funders give us money to continue our work and we are always grateful for their support, but this is different.

“It is a huge gift they have given us and we are immensely grateful for that. It will help this project grow and develop and become fully sustainable.”

Early in the month, we launched our Christmas and New Year appeal. It’s an important date in our calendar, not least because of the threat the freezing temperatures pose to many of our women.

Della said: “Every year we lose women to the cold weather, including related conditions such as pneumonia, which is frequently made much worse by rough-sleeping.

“Nobody should be at risk because of the weather, or hunger for that matter. 

“Please get in touch if there is anything you could donate to help us ensure the women we see stay warm this winter.”

We have come up with this shopping list of basics:

• Warm clothes – coats, knitwear, gloves and scarves.

• Sleeping bags and bedding.

• Underwear, particular knickers.

• Cup-a-soup, tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

• Tinned food.

We always light a candle to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Sex Workers, which takes place on December 17 every year.

This is our tribute to the women we have lost to male violence over the years and to those who drop by our base in London Road bearing its scars.

Della said: “Violence from men towards women is the biggest problem we deal with at the project.

“Every day we hear stories from the women we support about their experiences of violence from men, often family members or men they are in a relationship with.

“The impact of this is often devastating and affects women in all aspects of their lives. 

“The violence experienced by sex workers is the worst of the worst.

“Violence against women who have a history of childhood abuse and neglect, who have drug and/or alcohol dependency, who have so little income and such limited choices that they are already vulnerable is unforgivable.”

The latest domestic violence statistics were released this month and made for typically grim reading.

Released recently by the Office of National Statistics, (ONS), and covering the year to April 2023, they show just how much progress is still to be made in tackling an epidemic of violence which affected more than two million people over the age of 16 across the year.

The report reflects the crisis in the criminal justice system too – with just 6.8% of domestic abuse reports in the year to April 2023 resulting in a charge and a staggering 97% of investigations into sexual offences recorded as domestic abuse-related were closed with no suspect charged.

The death toll continues to rise. Across the three years to April 2022, 370 lives were taken by abusers.

Della said: “Unfortunately, while these figures are horrendous, they are no surprise to the New Futures Project and other people who work in this field.”

The New Futures Project offers a comprehensive welfare and counselling service for women and young people dealing with sexual abuse or exploitation, domestic violence, trafficking, poverty and debt, substance use or mental ill-health.

Call us on 0116 251 0803 or send us a message at: info@new-futures.org.uk

You can find us at 71 London Road, Leicester, LE2 0PE.

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