SAYiT LGBT+ Inclusion Kite mark

Young Women’s Housing Project have achieved the SAYiT LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark!

Young Women’s Housing Project from Sheffield has been awarded the Bronze as part of

the SAYiT LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark 2021 programme.

The SAYiT LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark is a quality assurance accreditation award for domestic abuse and sexual violence services in South Yorkshire. It has been developed to create a positive and welcoming environment for LGBT+ service users, staff and volunteers.

The Kite Mark aims to address some of the barriers LGBT+ people have to accessing services and to strengthen and develop services relationships with their LGBT+ service users and wider communities. By achieving the award organisations are able to signal to LGBT+ service users that their practice is committed to LGBT+ inclusion and is a safe place to access support.

The Kite Mark is separated into three award categories. The Bronze Award supports services to embed LGBT+

inclusion at the individual/team level, the Silver Awards enables organisations to ensure LGBT+ inclusion at the service level, and the Gold Award ensures LGBT+ inclusion is being applied at the organisational/institutional

level.

Theresa wilding the LGBT+ lead at Young Women’s Housing Project said; “The support from the Call it Out team to achieve the Kite mark has been invaluable and it has been a really helpful process for us to make clearly demonstrable improvements to our practice, and increase our confidence to continue to improve and place being LGBT+ inclusive at the heart of everything we do”.

The Call it Out project is an innovative project aimed at improving access to domestic abuse services for LGBT+ people across South Yorkshire. The two development workers on the project, Elly Sinclair and Evie Muir, are working across the whole of South Yorkshire – raising awareness of the needs of LGBT+ people who are affected by Domestic Abuse.

Recent research shows that LGBT+ victims and survivors of domestic abuse are, by and large, invisible in the mainstream support system. The project continues its consultation work with local LGBT+ people to understand what specific barriers exist for LGBT+ people experiencing domestic abuse that result in them not accessing sup- port services. Statistics show that

• 1 in 4 lesbian and bi women have experienced domestic abuse in a relationship _{(Stonewall, 2017)}
• Almost half (49%) of all gay and bi men have experienced at least one incident of domestic abuse from a family member or partner since the age of 16 _{(Stonewall, 2017)}
• 80% of trans people have experienced domestic abuse from a partner or ex-partner _{(Scottish Transgender Alliance,} 2010)

Heather Patterson, CEO of SAYiT Sheffield added “It’s great to be able to celebrate the work that organisations in South Yorkshire have done and the commitment they have shown to being more inclusive to LGBT+ survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence. Well done to Young Women’s Housing Project for achieving our LGBT+

Inclusion Kite Mark!”

To learn more about SAYiT’s Call it Out project and the LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark please visit https:// sayit.org.uk/callitout/kite-mark/ or email evie.muir@sayit.org.uk