About us
About Us
The Faith and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Coalition is the UK’s independent authority on faith-literacy in VAWG. We up-skill the Ending VAWG sector and equip faith organisations so that survivors of domestic abuse or any other form of gender-based violence, who are women from faith backgrounds are understood and protected without having to choose between safety and their religion or belief.
We work across the Ending VAWG sector to embed faith literacy and ensure holistic care at first contact. We can do this because we are a coalition of organisations, professionals and activists with an array of expertise who all believe that faith and global majority communities have a vital role to play in ending violence against women and girls (VAWG).
Why we exist
Survivors with a faith tell us that too often the support they need from professionals and the VAWG sector is lacking. Whilst positive intention is there, the gap in faith literacy and the inability to understand the role faith plays in their lives means that additional barriers are faced when accessing support, particularly, for survivors of domestic abuse. It also means that the impact of spiritual abuse on a woman’s safety, behaviour and mental health are not understood. Similarly, survivors also tell us that their faith communities are not always able to offer the support they would like, because they do not have the tools and lack the of understanding of the dynamics of abuse. Faith leaders and institutions are also not aware of the support services that are available. Survivors, therefore, fall through the gaps.
The Coalition believes that survivors from faith backgrounds, deserve support, safety and justice. As the UK’s independent leading authority on faith literacy in VAWG we build bridges between faith communities and the VAWG sector to standardise safe practice, build faith literacy and connect faith organisations and frontline services.
The Faith and VAWG Coalition was co-founded and brought together by a range of organisations (Standing Together, Restored, Respect, Muslim Youth Helpline, Jewish Women's Aid, Forward UK and Latin American Women's Rights Service) and activists (Sara Hyde, Natalie Collins and Nikki Dhillon-Keane).
What We Do
Faith communities and the VAWG sector share the commitment to protecting the vulnerable. The Faith & VAWG Coalition turns that shared commitment into coordinated, faith-literate practice so survivors are understood and protected, whomever they turn to.
We are the strategic bridge between faith communities and the violence against women and girls sector. We build faith-literacy, standardise safe practice, and connect the people and organisations working to keep survivors safe so survivors do not have to choose between their safety or their faith.
We bring people together
We convene the spaces that don't otherwise exist, where academics, practitioners, campaigners, survivors, and faith communities can think, learn and build together. Our events, panels and knowledge-sharing sessions connect people working on VAWG and domestic abuse across different faith traditions, and across all four nations, leading to relationships that strengthen practice and ultimately help survivors access safety and justice.
Our growing membership community means that VAWG services and faith organisations don't work in isolation. We connect services, ‘by and for’ organisations, community organisations and practitioners so that they work together.
We build knowledge and practice
We publish research that equips both faith communities and the VAWG sector to develop evidence-based approaches, so survivors from faith backgrounds stay engaged with services and feel holistically supported.
Our training helps faith organisations understand their safeguarding responsibilities and align them with their values and traditions. It helps VAWG practitioners develop the faith literacy they need to reduce drop-off, improve first contact, and build trust.
We amplify survivor voices
We respond to national consultations and contribute to policy processes to ensure that survivors from faith backgrounds are not forgotten but are part of collective effort in shaping the systems meant to protect them. We carry those voices into the rooms where decisions are made.
We work across the whole sector
Unlike organisations working within a single tradition or service, the Faith & VAWG Coalition works across faiths and non, across sectors, and across the UK. We are not an interfaith organisation and our members are unique organisations and practitioners committed to our vision of ending violence towards women and girls. We are the only organisation building faith-literacy and we do it in partnership, not in isolation.
Our history
We emerged out of a simple yet powerful recognition: not all women who experience gender-based violence are seen, and not all are supported.
Support for survivors of domestic abuse and other forms of VAWG, with a faith identity, is often harder to access. Secular services do not frequently recognise spiritual abuse, understand it or respond appropriately. And when a survivor's faith is not understood, or worse, treated as part of the problem they disengage or recognise that support and justice are lacking.
The Faith and VAWG Coalition exists because that is not good enough.
The seeds of the Faith and VAWG Coalition were sewn in 2018 at a conference organised by the Safety Across Faith and Ethnicity Project at Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse. The organisers and a number of the SAFE Project partners recognised a gap that no existing organisation was filling, that of a professional, strategic space where VAWG specialists and professionals working with faith and cultural contexts can come together to learn from each other, build better practice together and improve their understanding of religious trauma and spiritual abuse.
Out of that recognition, a small group of women came together. Different backgrounds, different faiths and none, but with a shared conviction that survivors from faith backgrounds deserved better and a willingness to build something that did not yet exist.
Through curiosity, patience, emergent practice and trust, they did exactly that.
The Coalition held its first meeting in May 2019. On 1st April 2024, it became an independent charity.
We are here because of their dedication.
Where we are now
Today the Faith and VAWG Coalition is the UK's independent authority on faith-literacy in VAWG. We have over 70 members. We publish research, provide training, convene knowledge-sharing spaces, and contribute to national policy consultations, always with the same purpose: so that every survivor from a faith background is understood, protected, and never has to choose between safety or their belief/faith
- We ascribe to the feminist perspective on male violence against women.
- We are grounded in our expertise and experience as survivors, believers and professionals within the VAWG sector
- We actively pursue learning and reflexivity in our own work and practice
- We believe there are no hierarchy of faith, belief or non-belief. All are equal.
- We believe faith and religion can be used and have the ethical traditions to eliminate VAWG.
- We believe VAWG is aided by systems of oppression that create marginalised and disparate experiences.
- We believe there is no hierarchy of faith, belief or non-belief. All are equal and can work together collaboratively.
- There are survivors whose needs are not being met.
- There is a gap in understanding the role of faith in survivors’ lives and therefore a gap in policy responses.
- Faith communities and groups may be the only access to support a survivor gets.
- As specialists and organisations, we are stronger together as a collective voice.
- There is a gap in funding and support for survivors from faith backgrounds and faith organisations who are working to end VAWG.
- Amplify the voices of survivors from faith and minoritised communities, by raising the profile of our members
- Enable positive policy and practice change by advocating for survivors with policymakers
- Build faith literacy and knowledge collaboratively across the VAWG sector by sharing best practice amongst members of the coalition and producing resources to be shared
- Engage , support and learn from faith leaders and communities
- Grow our organisation in a way that is resilient and adaptable, creating a safe space rooted in peer support for our members, supporters and employees
Find out more
Faith and VAWG Coalition Membership
The Coalition brings together organisations and activists working at the intersections of faith, race, ethnicity and violence against women and girls.
Faith & VAWG Coalition Statement on Black Lives Matter
We as the Faith and VAWG Coalition categorically condemn the racist murder of George Floyd and demand that all
who were involved in his death be brought to justice.
Briefing On Raising The Legal Age Of Marriage In The UK
Since 1929, marriage law in the UK allows 16-year-olds to marry with parental consent. In the past few years, with persistent effort from activist groups, individuals, and organisations, the UK government has committed to raising the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18 with the intention of safeguarding children who are at risk.