Women and Girls Network (WGN) is a pan-London service that supports women and girls affected by all forms of gendered violence.
This includes: childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, rape, prostitution (including trafficking and sexual exploitation), female genital mutilation (FGM), and so-called 'honour' based crimes such as forced marriage.
WGN is a free, women-only service providing a holistic response to women and girls aged 14 years upwards who have experienced, or are at risk of, gendered violence.
Their overall aim is to promote, preserve, and restore the mental health and wellbeing of women and girls to empower them to make a total and sustainable recovery from the experiences of violence.
Their services include:
- specialist counselling services, offering one to one sessions with a female counsellor
- specialist sexual violence helpline
- New web chat service - via the Women & Girls Network website - just click on the 'chat' button.
- advice service, including an advice line with trained advisors
- young women's advocacy service (11-18 years) and workshops
- ISVA (Independent Sexual Violence Advocate) service
- workshops on self-esteem and confidence building
- therapeutic groupwork - 'Self Empowerment' and 'The Art of Happiness'
- body therapies, such as shiatsu and aromatherapy massage
- accredited training programmes for frontline practitioners
- IPAMO project: a counselling support service for Refugee women with experiences of gender-based violence with practitioners from the same community or with a personalised experience of coming from a refugee community (current languages: Albanian, Farsi, Luganda, Mirpuri, Somali and Tamil)
West London Rape Crisis Centre is part of the Women and Girls Network and runs some the above services in Brent, Harrow, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hillingdon and Hounslow.
Address:
PO Box 13095, London, W14 0FE
Umbrella org:
Women and Girls Network (WGN)
Area serviced:
Brent, Harrow, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hillingdon and Hounslow
Telephone:
Advice Line: 0808 801 0660; Sexual Violence Helpline: 0808 801 0770; WLRCC: 020 8567 7347
Opening times:
Advice Line: Mon-Fri 10am-4pm; Wed 6pm-8pm. Sexual Violence Helpline: Mon & Fri 10am-12pm & 2.30pm-4.30pm; Tue-Thu 10am-1pm & 6.30pm-9pm
Who is it for:
Women and girls affected by all forms of gendered violence
Languages:
IPAMO offers counselling in various languages (currently Somali, Albanian, Tamil, Farsi and Luganda)
Charges:
All services except the training courses are free