{"id":54649,"date":"2015-03-03T15:15:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T15:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=3e9b1c1d6b504b60a7b5061fd621bba5"},"modified":"2015-03-03T15:15:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T15:15:10","slug":"press-release-new-fund-to-help-women-speak-up-on-child-sexual-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=54649","title":{"rendered":"Press release: New fund to help women speak up on child sexual exploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Local Government Minister Kris Hopkins today (3 March 2015) announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/fund-to-empower-women-to-tackle-abuse\">new \u00a3250,000 fund<\/a> to support women and give them the confidence to speak out against abuse and child sexual exploitation within their communities.  <\/p>\n<p>The recent Jay and Casey inquiries found a reluctance to discuss the subject and challenge abusive behaviour within the Pakistani heritage community in Rotherham.  Concerns about under-reporting have been echoed in other communities around the country. <\/p>\n<p>Professor Jay says in her report that \u201cwomen and girls in the Pakistani community in Rotherham should have been encouraged and empowered by the authorities to speak out about perpetrators and their own experiences as victims of sexual exploitation.\u201d She recommended that strategies should be developed \u201cthat support young women and girls from the community to participate without fear or threat\u201d. And Louise Casey called for more to be done to address the \u201cculture of denial\u201d in Rotherham.<\/p>\n<p>To help overcome some of these barriers, the Department for Communities and Local Government is backing a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/fund-to-empower-women-to-tackle-abuse\">Women\u2019s Empowerment Fund<\/a> for voluntary groups. <\/p>\n<p>The fund is one of a number of measures being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/pm-unveils-tough-new-measures-to-tackle-child-sexual-exploitation\">announced<\/a> by the government today. It is part of a national action plan to prevent further child sexual exploitation, better support victims where it has occurred and hold those responsible to account. <\/p>\n<p>And, ahead of International Women\u2019s Day this weekend, Minister Kris Hopkins said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Giving women and girls a voice, and importantly the confidence to use it to challenge sexual exploitation, is one of the ways we can address a culture of denial.<\/p>\n<p>A number of barriers to speaking up exist, particularly for some women from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Groups. This may be through an inability to speak English sufficiently, limited knowledge of how reporting processes work, or a lack of confidence to take on patriarchal cultures. Others may themselves have been victims of abuse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">We are completely committed to challenging this abhorrent behaviour wherever it occurs and this new fund will support that work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"further-information\">Further information<\/h2>\n<p>Voluntary and community groups who work with women are from today invited to apply for funding of up to \u00a320,000 for local community engagement projects for 2015 to 2016.<\/p>\n<p>As well as delivering innovative projects to empower women, successful bidders will be expected to produce case studies backed up by evidence on how empowering women can help tackle child sexual exploitation. These will then be used for sharing across government and with other voluntary and charitable sector and public sector groups.<\/p>\n<p>See more details on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/tackling-child-sexual-exploitation--2\">government\u2019s response<\/a> to child sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_40\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Office address and general enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"street-address\">2 Marsham Street<br \/>\n<br \/>\nLondon<\/span><br \/><span class=\"postal-code\">SW1P 4DF<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"contact_form_url\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Contact form<\/span><br \/>\n              <a href=\"http:\/\/forms.communities.gov.uk\/\">http:\/\/forms.communiti&#8230;<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">General enquiries:  please use this number if you are a member of the public<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 0000\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_171\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:communications-newsdesk@communities.gsi.gov.uk\">communications-newsdesk@communities.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Please use this number if you&#8217;re a journalist wishing to speak to Press Office<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 1201\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kris Hopkins announces a new \u00a3250,000 fund to support women and give them the confidence to speak out against abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}