SAVE THE SOUTHALL BLACK SISTERS
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SOUTHALL BLACK SISTERS FACES CLOSURE!!

Southall Black Sisters, a pioneering and pre-eminent campaigning and advocacy group for black & minority ethnic women experiencing domestic violence, are facing closure due to proposed funding cuts by Ealing's (Tory) Council who claim there is no need for this specialist service.

The local authority’s decision is based on the view that there is no need for specialist services for black and minority women and those services to abused women in the borough... (read more)
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SAVE THE SOUTHALL BLACK SISTERS
Category:
Organizations - Non-Profit Organizations
Description:
SOUTHALL BLACK SISTERS FACES CLOSURE!!

Southall Black Sisters, a pioneering and pre-eminent campaigning and advocacy group for black & minority ethnic women experiencing domestic violence, are facing closure due to proposed funding cuts by Ealing's (Tory) Council who claim there is no need for this specialist service.

The local authority’s decision is based on the view that there is no need for specialist services for black and minority women and those services to abused women in the borough... (read more)
Privacy Type:
Open: All content is public.

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Southall Black Sisters’ Victory against Ealing Council

‘An equal society protects and promotes equality real freedom and substantive opportunity to live in the ways people value and would choose so that everyone can flourish. An equal society recognises people’s different needs, situations and goals and removes the barriers that limit what people can do and can be.’(Lord Justice Moses quoting the chairman of the Equalities Review in the final report ‘Fairness and Freedom’ 2007)

In his written judgment on our battle to survive as a specialist secular, anti-racist and feminist organisation in the face of threatened funding cuts by Ealing Council, Lord Justice Moses reiterates some important principles about equality which will have wider ramifications for all those struggling to maintain funding for specialist services and for the struggle for equality generally:

• There is clear duty on local authorities to assess the negative impact of any policy or change in services on racial groups or indeed other groups before the policy is adopted and if there is adverse impact, to find ways to minimise or eliminate the risk;

• Rearguard action - i.e. any attempt by a local authority to carry out equality impact assessments to justify policies already determined or a tick box approach to equality impact assessment - will not be lawful;

• Targeting services to specific racial groups and positive action to eliminate racism does not undermine the principles of cohesion or the Race Relations. ‘Cohesion is achieved by overcoming barriers. That may require the needs of ethnic minorities to be met in a particular and focussed way. The Southall Black Sisters illustrates that principle…There is no dichotomy between the promotion of equality and cohesion and the provision of specialist services to an ethnic minority.’

• Specialist services are entitled to give themselves a name which announces the specialist nature of their purpose. ‘Specialist services for a racial minority from a specialist source is anti-discriminatory and furthers the objectives of equality and cohesion.’

This judgment is important not only because it strikes a blow at those who try to diminish the principle of racial equality but also because it reminds us of what the struggle for equality should be about – the right to be free from racism and all forms of oppression that place a limit on what people can do and can be’.

Please circulate widely. SBS will be interested to hear from any organisations or individuals who make use of this judgment.

* * * * * *

UPDATE: SOUTHALL BLACK SISTER'S VICTORY AGAINST EALING COUNCIL


'There is no dichotomy between funding specialist services and cohesion; equality is necessary for cohesion to be achieved.' Lord Justice Moses

On 18 July at the High Court, in a dramatic turn of events, Ealing Council withdrew their case after one and a half days of a hearing which saw their defence rapidly unravelling. From the outset, it became apparent to the presiding judge, Lord Justice Moses and to all those present in the courtroom including the packed public gallery, that Ealing Council was skating on really thin ice in attempting to justify its decision to cut funding to SBS and to commission instead one generic borough wide service on domestic violence on the grounds of 'equality' and 'cohesion'.

Amongst other things, Ealing Council was charged with the failure to:

· Have proper regard to the race equality legislation and other equalities duties or its own policies when it made its decision to end funding to SBS. It failed to carry out a full and proper equality impact assessment and when it did, it was only to justify its decision;

· Interpret correctly the race equality legislation by deciding that our very name and constitution (to meet the needs of Asian and African-Caribbean women) was in breach of the Race Relations Act because it 'excluded' white women;

· Interpret correctly the cohesion agenda by assuming that it was contrary to the race equality legislation.

As the two days wore on, Ealing Council found it difficult to maintain its defence in the light of extensive evidence which showed that it had committed a series of fundamental errors and was in fact close to being regarded as having conducted the matter in 'bad faith' – a very serious allegation. The judge was disturbed by the way in which the Council had behaved and was demanding that it account for aspects of its actions which he found 'blood curdling'. The Council had misinterpreted statistics which showed that black and minority women have rates of reporting domestic violence in Ealing that are disproportionate to their size of population and a crucial letter from the author of a report on gaps in domestic violence services in Ealing was not taken into account by the Council when deciding to provide a generic service, leading her to make a formal complaint.

The Council eventually decided to withdraw its case thereby denying SBS the opportunity of having a full judgement setting out the facts of the case and the litany of failures on the part of the Council – which would have been devastating for the Council and in particular for its leader. But we were able to secure a shorter judgement (pending) – which will take the form of guidance to Ealing and hopefully to all other local authorities so that in future they comply properly with the racial and other equalities legislation. Essentially the principles that will be reiterated are:

* Local authorities must have proper regard to the Race Relations Act which also means undertaking proper equality impact assessments at the formative stage of the decision making process;
* Cohesion does not mean disregarding the need for equality. Local authorities cannot hide behind cohesion arguments to cut specialist service provision;
* Positive action is an essential part of the duty to promote racial equality. Special services run for and by BME groups (whatever their name) are not contrary to the Race Relations Act.

This result of all this is that Ealing Council must now go back to the drawing board and although the outcome could be the same again, hopefully, our victory will make it more difficult for it to ignore the guidance and therefore SBS. The Council has agreed to continue to fund SBS at the previous level until it completes the process of commissioning based on any new decision on domestic violence services.

Ealing Council also agreed to pay the costs of our legal representation and unusually the costs of the Equality and Human Rights Commission which intervened in the case as an interested third party. The total costs are likely to amount to about £100,000 – the amount that the Council previously gave SBS on an annual basis!

Victory for the entire voluntary sector

This case has raised important questions about the meaning of equality and cohesion and reminded us of the need to maintain solidarity between white and black women in the face of 'divide and rule' tactics. We hope that our victory will encourage other grassroots groups to fight back. We believe this case has set a precedent and that the guidance that will be available should enable all specialist groups to fight for the right to exist as autonomous groups.

When we began the process of challenging Ealing Council exactly one year ago, we were not sure where our journey would lead us. We received tremendous support from our users and many, many other individuals and organisations along the way. It is impossible to list everyone who supported us but we really would not have come this far without such encouragement and support. Above all, the support that we received reminded us of our responsibility in building a civil society based on the principles of justice, equality and humanity. We thank you all for making this victory possible.

Southall Black Sisters – Our tradition: Struggle Not Submission

* * * * * * * * * *

We Will Survive – SBS style

First we were afraid
We were petrified
Thinking we could never live
Without Ealing by our side
But we spent so many days
Grilling lawyers hard and long
But we grew strong
And we learned how to carry on
You will be sad
When we are gone
You’ll lose the feather in your cap
You’ll lose the jewel in your crown
You’ll learn what special means
And be sorry you caused a fuss
When women are knocking on your door
Don’t come back to bother us

Go on now go walk out the door
Don’t turn around now
‘Cause you’re not welcome anymore
Weren’t you the one who tried to take our funds away?
You think we’d crumble
You think we’d lay down and weep
Oh no, not we
We will survive
Oh as long as we know how to work
We know we will stay alive
Cos we’ve got all our life to live
We’ve got all our skills to give
And we’ll survive
We will survive – hey, hey

It took all the strength we had
Not to fall apart
We kept trying to go on
And not break the women’s hearts
And we spent oh so many nights
Just feeling sorry for ourselves
We used to cry
Now we hold our heads up high
And you see us
Somebody new
We’re not that piddly little group
Still in debt to you
Singing for dinner and a dime
And kept down on bended knees
Now we’re spending all out time
On funders who’ll set us free

Go on now go….

* * * * * * * * * *

Dear Friends,

URGENT…URGENT…URGENT…URGENT…URGENT…URGENT…URGENT

We urge you to join our demonstration on the 17th and 18th July at the High Court in the Strand

Nearest Tube Holborn (Circle and Piccadilly Line) or Temple (District and Circle Line)

Please bring musical instruments, whistles and banners.

------------------------------------------------------

AN UPDATE LETTER WRITTEN BY SOUTHALL BLACK SISTERS ON THE CURRENT FUNDING SITUATION

'Support is still needed

A big ‘thank you’ to all those who have and are supporting us in our hour of need! We have been truly humbled by the tremendous support that we have received from around the country and even internationally!

At a full cabinet meeting on 26th February 2008, despite a lively protest involving users and supporters of SBS, Ealing Council went ahead with its decision to have only one service provider on domestic violence for the borough. The Council will now make a decision on 1 April 2008 as to who will get the funds. Although SBS has made a bid for the funds (£100,000 per year for 3 years), we are unlikely to succeed as we are insistent that without extra funding, it is impossible to provide a borough wide service without cutting services to black and minority women. On the other hand, a number of organizations including the national charity Refuge, has applied for the recycled funds that have previously been awarded to SBS to meet the needs of black and minority women.

Equality and Cohesion

It is of great concern to us that across the country, at the local and national level, a number of policies and initiatives are being instituted which will have a profound impact on projects such as ours. We are witness to a redefinition of the notion of equality in the delivery of services. Equality no longer appears to be linked to the needs of the most vulnerable and deprived, (traditionally this has included black and minority communities). Instead it is linked to the view that all services must reflect the needs of the majority community because it has been traditionally ‘excluded’ from regeneration policies. In other words, equality means providing the same services for everyone. Under this misguided ‘one size fits all’ approach, unequal structural relations based on class, gender and race are ignored. So, in our situation, due in part to budget constraints, Ealing Council has made full use of the backlash against multiculturalism and feminism to ‘restructure’ its services so that there is only one service provider of domestic violence. They argue that this will not have an adverse impact on black and minority women since they can access the service if they wish. Specialist services likes ours are needed not only for reasons to do with language and cultural differences but just as importantly because organisations like ours have considerable experience and expertise in providing advice and advocacy services in complex circumstances where legal aid is no longer easily available and where immigration difficulties make some people much more vulnerable than others.

At the same time, in a somewhat contradictory fashion, the implementation of ‘cohesion’ strategies in Ealing and around the country are resulting in the promotion of single faith (Muslim) based groups that are provided with funds to build capacity to address a range of social issues. For a number of reasons, this is an extremely worrying development. It also spells the death knell of secular groups like SBS. Our main concern is that social issues like domestic violence and forced marriage in faith based groups will be addressed from within a religious framework which will be disastrous for women’s rights within minority communities. It will close down the options that are available to the most vulnerable in our communities and will violate their fundamental human rights.

Refuge

We are extremely disturbed to note that the organisation Refuge has decided to make a bid for the recycled funds that should be awarded to SBS. Refuge is a national domestic violence charity that has considerable resources at its disposal. In 2006/7 for instance, its total annual income was £9.4 million. Refuge has made a bid for the £100,000 to provide a domestic violence service in Ealing. Needless to say, this move undermines our struggle for funding and for our autonomy. By way of a gesture of support, Refuge wrote to Ealing Council requesting it to make reserve funds available for SBS following the bidding process! It is a matter of great disappointment to SBS that a well known, well resourced national organisation like Refuge is colluding in the closure of a vital specialist organisation. Given its annual income, its bid for the £100,000 represents a ‘drop in the ocean’, but the same funds will make all the difference to our work with black and minority women. Its attitude displays a patronising, unprincipled and indifferent approach to our struggles as black and minority women.'