Culturally-adapted services - Refuge
Skip to content
Culturally-adapted services
Black and minoritised women often face additional barriers to accessing support due to discrimination, language needs or immigration status. We’re committed to breaking down those barriers.
We’re breaking down cultural barriers.
Domestic abuse crosses the boundaries of race, culture, language and religious and ethnic background. It can happen to anyone. But, for a multitude of reasons, Black and minoritised women often face additional barriers to accessing support. For example:
Discrimination, language barriers, or immigration status can hinder some minority women’s ability to access support
Many survivors from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee backgrounds can face cultural and community pressures that may make it more difficult for some women to escape the abuser
Some survivors may have been trafficked into the UK or forced into marriage
Some women may prefer to access support from women who speak their language and understand their culture/cultural background and specific needs.
Refuge is committed to breaking down these barriers to accessing help. Our expert staff speak a range of languages and we provide culturally-adapted services for Eastern European, Vietnamese, African, Caribbean and Asian women. We continuously adapt and improve our services to ensure equality of access for all survivors. We also run a range of culturally-adapted refuge and community-based outreach and advocacy services, run by multi-lingual expert practitioners.
Vietnamese and Chinese outreach service
Refuge’s specialist Vietnamese service operates across the country. Many of the women (and men) it supports have experienced – or are at risk of – multiple types of gender-based violence and domestic abuse, including human trafficking and modern slavery. A large number of women we support also have insecure immigration status or have no recourse to public funds – something their abusers frequently use to control them. Refuge’s specialist Vietnamese workers can support women in their own language to:
Understand their rights and feel empowered
Review access to public funds
Keep themselves and their children safe
Access immigration solicitors to regularise their immigration status in the UK
Report abuse to the police and access the criminal justice system
Access ‘first-responder’ organisations for support services within the National Referral
Mechanism following human trafficking or modern slavery
Attend English classes and reduce their isolation
Eastern European Advocacy and Outreach Services
For a domestic abuse survivor, accessing support from an independent advocate who understands her culture and speaks her language is invaluable. Refuge runs specialist advocacy and outreach services:
Understand her rights and feel empowered
Access safe accommodation
Navigate the criminal justice system
Access financial support and employment opportunities
Communicate safely with friends and family
Benefit from safe use of technology
Access support from other agencies, such as mental health services
Overcome language barriers
Keep herself and her children safe
Culturally-adapted refuges
We run a number of refuges specifically for women of African and Caribbean descent, and for women of Asian descent. Nine out of ten women in these refuges have said they preferred living in a specialist refuge.
Refuge workers at these specialist accommodations speak a range of languages, including Urdu, Punjabi, Mirpuri, Hindi and Sylheti. They also understand the specific pressures and challenges facing the women they support, which offers survivors relief knowing they will not be judged or misunderstood for their experiences, immigration status, religion or traditions.
Our culturally-adapted refuges are adapted to offer survivors:
Language support
Support around immigration, asylum and modern slavery
Support to access the criminal justice system
Support relating to forced marriage, ‘honour’-based violence and FGM
Support following potential or actual child kidnap (including overseas)
Staff accompany women to appointments, to support and empower them and challenge prejudices and racism
Staff work with women to connect, safely, with local cultural and faith groups
Support to access safe technology
Providing separate pots, cutlery and utensils to cater for any dietary requirements
Spotlight on Linh*
Linh* left Vietnam for China in 2005. Instead of the expected factory job, she faced the choice of prostitution or having her organs removed. In 2015 she was trafficked to the UK and moved from place to place. Her captors threatened that the police would imprison her if she communicated with them. Linh believed this and was scared.
A police raid enabled her escape but left Linh unsure of where to turn. By approaching Vietnamese women in the street, she learnt about our Vietnamese and Chinese Outreach Service. Linh couldn’t believe that a Refuge worker would see her, all for free.
We provided her with clothes, food and safe accommodation. We found a solicitor able to see her immediately. And we referred her to a specialist counselling service. Linh is now living in her own accommodation. She has been granted leave to remain under asylum and refugee status.
*Names have been changed to protect privacy.