Abianda

Abianda is a social enterprise that supports young women affected by criminal exploitation and violence and the professionals that work with them. We offer one-to-one, group work and employment opportunities to young women and girls. We offer training and consultations for professionals so they can work more confidently and effectively with young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence.

We set up Abianda to address the gap in services for young women and girls and to change the way services are delivered to them, so we can more effectively respond to their needs. We do this through our unique model of practice – we address the barriers that stop young women from seeking help and work alongside them to design and deliver our services.

Our guiding principles are:
· That people affected by a problem are best placed to find the solutions
· To value young women as experts on their own lives
· To shift traditional power hierarchies in service delivery in order to enable young women’s participation in solution building, and support young women to have their voices heard in order that they can influence the design and delivery of services
· A fundamental belief in young women’s innate resources, competence and resilience

Founder Abi Billinghurst received a New Radicals award from Nesta and the Guardian in 2016.