“89% of LGBTQ people said they would feel more confident accessing a service which displayed an LGBT+ kite mark”
The SAYiT LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark is a quality assurance accreditation award for domestic abuse and sexual violence services in South Yorkshire. It has been developed to reduce barriers to help-seeking by creating a more positive and welcoming environment for LGBT+ service users, staff and volunteers.
We are delighted to announce the first three organisations who have achieved the SAYiT LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark!
Congratulations to for achieving the LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark at the Bronze level!
Hackenthorpe Lodge,
YWCA Yorkshire – Peile House
NSPCC Sheffield – Letting the Future in
The Kite Mark aims to address some of the barriers LGBT+ people have in accessing services and to strengthen and develop services relationships with their LGBT+ service users and wider communities. By achieving the award these organisations are able to signal to LGBT+ service users that their practice is committed to LGBT+ inclusion and is a safe place to access support.
The Kite Mark consists of three award categories.
The Bronze Award recognises services which have embedded LGBT+ inclusion at the individual/team level. At this stage we ask organisations to ensure their domestic abuse service is visibly LGBT+ inclusive, that their domestic abuse team include their pronouns on their emails and name badges, and have attended our LGBT+ Domestic Abuse training. The Silver Award recognises organisations which has ensured LGBT+ inclusion at the service level. This requires an examination of the one to one and group support a service provides and ensures LGBT+ survivors are being included in these practices, as well as starting to look at paperwork, community outreach and in-house training.
The Gold Award recognises those organisations with LGBT+ inclusion being embedded at the organisational/institutional level. Here organisations must examine their overall structure and infrastructure and we look deeper at the use of gender neutral toilets and policies and practice such as equality and diversity, trans inclusion and recruitment policies.
Heather Paterson, CEO of SAYiT Sheffield adds “It’s great to be able to celebrate the work that organisations in South Yorkshire have done and the commitment they have shown to being more inclusive to LGBT+ survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence. Well done to all three organisations for achieving our LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark!”
Watch this space – we are working with more services across the region who are set to achieve the Bronze, Silver and Gold LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark, we can’t wait to see their progress!
Quotes from organisations:
Hackenthorpe Lodge: Members of the LGBT+ community may experience stigma, prejudice and other discriminatory behaviour, both as patients and/or victims of crime. Therefore, as Hackenthorpe Lodge’s (Sexual Assault Referral Centre) LGBT+ link nurse, I wanted to take a proactive approach to ensuring our service was understanding of the potential barriers members of LGBT+ community may face when accessing services, and also to raise awareness of our specialised service within the same community.
During the past year, I have been fortunate to meet the wonderful staff at SAYiT and form part of the South Yorkshire LGBT+ Networking Group (the group aims to address the barriers which prevent LGBT+ people from accessing mainstream sexual and domestic abusive services). As a member of this group, I have met many like-minded professionals who want to push forward with promoting diversity and inclusion within our dedicated services and address the barriers which prevent members of the community accessing services.
In order to validate and celebrate the work we, at Hackenthorpe Lodge, have achieved, we decided to progress with SAYiT’s LGBT+ Inclusion Kite Mark certification. This provided us with a creditable structure in which to work towards. I am beyond thrilled and extremely proud to have achieved SAYiT’s LGBT+ Bronze Award – Kite Mark certification, on behalf of Hackenthorpe Lodge, and look forward to working towards achieving the Silver Award in the very near future. – Keeley Roe.
YWCA Yorkshire Peile House: We are incredibly proud to say that we have the Bronze Kite Mark through SayIt Sheffield! Our service is one that supports young homeless women in a small hostel. Knowing that nearly 1/4 of the youth homeless population is a part of the LGBTQ+ community – we want to ensure we are providing a safe and inclusive service for everyone. No individual should not be able to access the support and care they need because of their identity or sexuality. We are so proud to have Bronze and we look forward to working towards Silver! Many thanks to Evie and Elly who has supported us greatly along the way! NSPCC Sheffield Letting The Future In: At Sheffield NSPCC Service Centre we want to ensure that we are an inclusive and welcoming service for all LGBTQ+ children and young people which is why we have committed ourselves to the Sayit Kite Mark scheme. We have found this a really positive and helpful experience and some of the simple changes we have made have already been noticed and felt by a number of young people that access our services. The support from Sayit has really helped us reflect on how we do things and enabled us to make a concrete difference. Thank you to all at Sayit’.
About SAYiT and the Call it Out project
SAYiT was awarded funding to run the Call it Out Project in both 2019 and 2020: an innovative project aimed at improving access to domestic abuse services for LGBT+ people (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and other minority sexuality and/or genders) across South Yorkshire (Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster).
Statistics show that:
1 in 4 lesbian and bi women have experienced domestic abuse in a relationship (Stonewall, 2017)
Almost half (49%) of all gay and bi men have experienced at least one incident of domestic abuse from a family member or partner since the age of 16 (Stonewall, 2017)
80% of trans people have experienced domestic abuse from a partner or an ex-partner (Scottish Transgender Alliance, 2010)
The two development workers on the project, Elly Sinclair and Evie Muir, are currently working across the whole of South Yorkshire – raising awareness of the needs of LGBT+ people who are affected by Domestic Abuse.
Recent research shows that when LGBT+ victims and survivors experience domestic abuse barriers exist to them reporting and help-seeking. The project which was re-funded in June 2020, continues its consultation work with local LGBT+ people to understand what specific barriers exist for LGBT+ people experiencing domestic abuse that prevent them from accessing support services.
To find out more about this project please email info@sayit.org.uk