CCChat-Magazine_Issue-13

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"Sitting through a court case last year and hearing about the horrific murder of community giant, Valerie Forde and her 22 month old daughter, baby J in 2014 was the final straw for me. Valerie's death was so unavoidable." Ngozi Fulani (IDVA, ISVA) Making The Invisible Visible
Meet Ngozi Fulani founder of Sistah Space I didn't plan to be an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA), I didn't even know what it was until a set of circumstances led me down the path I now find myself on. It was the murder of Valerie Forde and her 22 month old daughter 'Baby J' that really set me on this particular journey. Valerie died and her baby died just a short time after reporting threats made by her ex-partner to burn down the house with her and the children in it. This was recorded by police as 'A threat to property'. Consequently no actions were put in place to safeguard Valerie and baby J. Violence against women and girls is something that I had grown accustom to hearing about about most of my life. All the images that I saw and all the people I heard speaking about it were mainly white women. No black women I knew that had experienced domestic abuse had ever received adequate support, they all had issues with either the way the police handled them, asking to see red marks or bruising, or the way refuges couldn’t understand their basic needs. For that reason, I decided to do the IDVA training to maybe of some support to people I knew. I was amazed to realise that there was nothing at all in the training programmes that related to African or Caribbean women. We learned about almost every other community & culture and how they are affected. We were taught what resources were available for certain groups, including those with disabilities, victims of Honour Based Violence, every conceivable group, but no mention about black women. I raised it, but had no response as to why this was. We also had a lot of visitors as part of the course, but never any women from the black community. I raised it time and time again until finally they invited me down to their offices for a chat. After another long gap of over a year, in which time I had to keep making contact, I was invited to deliver training. The training took place last year and to date no visible changes have been implemented. My request for an update have been practically ignored. To date I am challenging those many domestic abuse organisations that continue to refer African heritage women to organisations that do not and can't cater for black women. Sending black women victims/survivors of domestic abuse to organisations that do not understand them, place them at further risk of harm. It is not possible to do an accurate risk assessment on women if you don't understand their cultural needs. Rastafarian and other grassroots women are invisible in plain sight. I have yet to see a mainstream organisation that has women from these communities in a decision making postion. Sending black women to refuges or places where they can't access the items they need increases the risk that they will return to the perpetrator. February 16th would have been Valerie Forde's 50th birthday. The 31st March was the 5 year anniversary of the murders. On that day we re-launched Valerie's Law to try to get every organisation to sign up for cultural awareness course. To sign the petition go to: www.change.org VALERIE'S LAW- Make discrimination Awareness Training Compulsory in DV Organisations. Making The Invisible Visible
Page 1: CCChat Magazine FREE The Magazine o
Page 5 and 6: Contents Interview with the Editor
Page 9 and 10: Freedom’s Flowers By Pat Craven C
Page 11: Before he moved in, when he met the
Page 17 and 18: Dominic's Story A male victim of ab
Page 19 and 20: “We’ve been really worried abou
Page 21 and 22: “It may not be the life you had p
Page 23 and 24: the truth about domestic abuse and
Page 25 and 26: I also struggled with the ‘Whys
Page 27: Like Andrew Wakefield’s infamous
Page 30 and 31: What made you stop? Ahh, well many
Page 32 and 33: The interview Liz Gibbons Liz Gibbo
Page 34: So is it totally secure? We are con
Page 37 and 38: “I believe he saw himself as a sm
Page 39 and 40: Theo told me that, if I was comfort
Page 41 and 42: Since meeting that woman, I have co
Page 44 and 45: Cath Kane Director Broad Cairn Asso
Page 46 and 47: “There is huge gap between what w

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