Women’s homelessness – Listening to lived experience

Action Homeless are thrilled to have received a grant from World Habitat’s Innovation Fund to support our work in developing effective responses to women’s homelessness. Leicester has been a European End Street Homelessness campaign city for over 5 years and is committed to ensuring the voice of those with lived experience is at the heart of designing services for people who are homeless.

By funding a series of Women’s Open Space events, the grant will enable Action Homeless and our partner organisations to ensure that women’s real life experiences and insights, which are so often unheard and marginalised, directly inform the development of services in Leicester.

Following successful pilot events, run as a partnership between Action Homeless and The Bridge, the Women’s Open Space will now become an established monthly group which sees women coming together to share experiences and benefit from peer support.

Crucially, the learning and insight gathered at events will be shared through networks, including Leicester’s Homelessness Charter, so that the voices of women are heard by a wide range of people.

Mark Grant, Action Homeless Chief Executive, said ‘this grant from the Innovation Fund is an important step in our progress towards providing better services for women affected by homelessness. We can only do this successfully by listening to women, understanding their experiences and acting on what we hear.’

For further information about the Women’s Open Space events, please contact info@actionhomeless.org.uk