Specialist Advice & Advocacy

The aim of this service is to advise and support women and girls who are experiencing all forms of VAWG, including harmful practices such as:

• forced marriage;
• honour-based violence, and;
• female genital mutilation,

Ashiana and our legal team are accredited with the Office of Immigration Services Commission at level 2.

The service enables them to take actions such as:

• making informed choices;
• exiting violent relationships;
• reporting to VAWG to police;
• pursuing civil and criminal legal cases;
• taking out injunctions;
• seeking access to refuges;
• applying for and managing welfare benefits;
• accessing healthcare, and;
• finding safe housing and accommodation.

In such cases, the Advice & Support Worker will arrange individual sessions to assess short and long-term needs and offer confidential advice, support and advocacy.

The Advice & Support Worker also offers one-to-one advice and information on rights, entitlements, intensive casework and other forms of advocacy.

Complex Needs & Multiple Disadvantage

We work with women and girls who are frequently excluded from mainstream services and/or find it hard to engage with support due to their complex needs or multiple disadvantage. Our outreach activity, trauma informed approach and flexible 1-1 and group support helps women and girls to get the support they need. We work with women and girls to:

• Access safe housing & benefits;
• Stay safe and improve health;
• Engage in other support services;
• Build self-esteem and confidence;
• Access work, education and training, and;
• Become financially independent.

We promote multi-agency awareness and coordinated service delivery between VAWG, housing, legal, mental health and substance use agencies. We support and enable women affected by VAWG and experiencing multiple disadvantages to reduce risk, make informed choices and build self-esteem

Immigration Advice & Advocacy

Ashiana delivers a legal service aimed at supporting women and girls  who are impacted by gender-based violence and have no recourse to public funds.

Our immigration services also engage in community outreach by engaging in regular immigration advice surgeries in Waltham Forest, Bexley and Hillingdon.

Foreign spouses and parents of British children are among the most vulnerable to destitution due to the ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ attached to their visas. 

Ashiana works with women who have experienced any form of gender-based violence with insecure immigration status can access specialist legal advice, assistance with regularising their status and where necessary, advocacy at court on their behalf on a diverse range of legal issues including asylum and trafficking.

The support and work involved within this service are free but applicants will be required to contribute towards home office fees and disbursements where applicable.