Case studies

MK Act provide safe emergency accommodation for women and their children escaping domestic violence. As part of their auditing process to ensure they are meeting the needs of their service users they must be assessed against the Women’s Aid Federation England National Quality Standards. The review was carried out and MK Act were awarded the Women’s Aid Quality Mark. 

As part of the quality standard process, MK Act were also provided with recommendations that needed to be met. This included development of an an overarching equalities strategy addressing training, monitoring and planning and provides evidence of the board reviewing Equality & Diversity monitoring data on staff, service users and trustees and action planning to address areas of under-representation.

To support this Diverse Matters delivered training to the team.  The training was a specifically tailored Diversity and Inclusion masterclass with additional focus on domestic abuse and supporting victims with diverse needs and how it can affect different communities (LGBT+ service users, service users with learning disabilities).  This supported the team to ensure that service users needs were met and they received an inclusive service. 

Diverse matters were also commissioned to supported them to develop the equalities strategy. This was carried out in partnership with the board, CEO and staff team.

During 2020, we have continued to support the team with training regarding race inclusion to ensure staff and volunteers have to knowledge to support victims/survivors of domestic abuse fromBlack and racialised communities.

Client feedback on training delivered:

Our Commissioners under a Quality Review of our services recommended that Mk Act required up to date training in regards to Equality and Diversity.  As it had been a while since we had carried out diversity training within the organisation, the whole organisation was required to undertake it, so all Trustee’s, Staff and Volunteers were invited. 

Natasha from Diverse Matters worked with us to assess our needs as an organisation and tailored the training to meet our needs. The training session was up to date, interactive and engaging. All the feedback from the team was positive and they loved Natasha’s training style which was informed, open and fun! 

One member of staff said to me “I was dreading going on Diversity training but it was a really great session and I learnt a lot”.  I cannot recommend Natasha highly enough she is a real expert in her field backed up with years of experience and makes Diversity and Inclusion relevant to the work that you are delivering.