CCChat-Magazine_Issue-19

The CCChat Interview
Meena Kumari
H.O.P.E Training &
Consultancy (Helping
Other People Everyday)
offers high quality training
& consultancy in domestic
abuse, sexual violence/
abuse and safeguarding.
H.O.P.E was established
by Meena Kumari in 2008
and has trained a number
of professionals in a
variety of safeguarding
subjects.
Meena has worked in
front line services since
2005 - with victims and
perpetrators as well as
children and young people
and has also previously sat
as a Magistrate
In 2008 Meena was
awarded the Leicester
Young Achiever Award
and in 2015 Meena was
shortlisted as a finalist as
part of the Iranian &
Kurdish Women's Rights
organisation IKWRO
Awards for her work in
combating Honour Abuse
and Forced Marriages.
In April 2020 Meena set
up the national H.O.P.E
Calls looking at domestic
abuse within Black &
minority ethnic
communities during
Covid-19. Meena is also
the curator of the H.O.P.E
digital ART project which
was launch in 2020
www.hopetraining.co.uk.
I
n
April 2020, Meena Kumari set up the
national H.O.P.E Calls looking at
domestic abuse within Black & minority
ethnic communities during Covid-19. I
was super excited to be able to
interview Meena for CCChat.
Min: Hi Meena, thank you so much for agreeing to this
interview. For the readers who don’t know you, could you
talk a bit about what you do?
Meena: I am the founder and director of H.O.P.E Training
& Consultancy. Over the years I have worked for charities
whose social cause was important to me. I have a keen
interest in social housing and always try to develop my
professional practice within this sector. HOPE was
developed organically in 2008 and I'm specialising in
delivering training and consultancy around domestic
abuse, sexual violence/abuse and safeguarding. My day job
has always been within safeguarding and I am able to
support my work with HOPE alongside this. I also make
time for myself and my family; this is really important to
me, as burn-out and vicarious trauma can be a factor in the
type of work we do.
Min: How did you get into working in this field? Was this a
career path you had in mind or did you fall into it
accidentally?
Meena: I left university in 2005 and fell into domestic
abuse work actually by accident. I started my career
working in Leicester for a very small DA charity where I
was a DA coordinator managing a helpline. My role was to
support the staff and volunteers who were taking calls from
victims, perpetrators and young people. After working
there for a number of years, in various roles, I never really
left the sector!
I actually wanted to do Law at college and university and
wanted to be a barrister but never had the grades to pursue
this academically- I have now worked within that criminal
justice space- again in various roles so feel I still get to have
an insight into this.
Making The Invisible Visible