Abianda

Who we are

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

We provide direct services for young women and girls aged up to 25 and training for professionals who work with them. We set up Abianda to address the gap in services for young women affected by 'gangs' and to change the way services are delivered to them, so we can more effectively respond to their needs. We do this through our unique model of practice – we address the barriers that stop young women from seeking help & work alongside them to design & deliver our services.

Our culture and values

Abianda’s vision is that young women and girls are free from oppression and harm caused by criminal exploitation and violence.

Our Mission

Our mission is to support young women harmed by criminal exploitation and violence to develop independence and agency. We do this through:

• The provision of specialist one-to-one and contextual safeguarding services, which increase safety, skills, self-advocacy and agency;

• Working with national and local services to challenge and change their approaches, through the delivery of our training and systems change programmes;

• Building a network of young women and girls who can disrupt and re-design policy and practice to create lasting impact.

Our Principles

We believe that:

• Young women are experts on their own lives

• Young women have innate resources, competence and resilience

• People affected by a problem are best placed to find the solutions

• We must shift traditional power hierarchies in service delivery in order to enable young women's participation in solution-building

• We must support young women to have their voices heard in order that they can influence the design and delivery of services

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Abianda is an organisation that prides itself on its integrity and its commitment to values of belonging, equity, and non-discriminatory practice, in support of safe spaces for girls and young women and our team. To uphold these values, we have clear expectations of all staff, young women, board members and volunteers who work for and with the organisation.