London Black Women’s Project (LBWP) is a specialist, women-only organisation dedicated to supporting Black, Asian and minoritised women.

The organisation was established as Newham Asian Women’s Project (NAWP) in 1981 to campaign for and support the needs of South Asian women in the London Borough of Newham. NAWP identified that for South Asian women experiencing domestic violence there were significant barriers due to racism and discrimination, social, political and economic exclusion which affected access to vital services.

For over 30 years we have worked with partners across London to campaign for funds and programmes for women, provide services and training, and raised the profile of this essential and specialist work with local and national governments. We had alliances to Newham based Black Women’s organisation to raise the profile of BME women. As these services dwindled, we expanded our services to support refugee and migrant women, Black women, as well as South Asian and Asian women; this resulted in the organisation name change in 2015.

We are committed to delivering the highest level of quality services to support women and girls who have experienced domestic violence and abuse. We do this by ensuring our organisation reflects the women we support:  we are women-only, women-led and all our staff and freelance counsellors are Black, Asian or minoritised women.

Our services for women and girls include a new model of safe emergency refuge accommodation that includes integrated legal advice, supporting multiple needs, providing specialist housing advice, transcultural counselling, as well as advice on benefits and council support, housing and homelessness, immigration, local services, children’s services, money management, health and well-being.
Domestic violence covers any of the following experiences:

• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Forced marriage
• Sexual abuse and harassment
• Financial control
• Coercive control
• Female genital mutilation
• Harmful practices which include so-called ‘honour-based’ violence
• Online abuse

We also work in partnership with local agencies, including GP practices, to provide training and advice on the specialist needs of Black, Asian and minoritised women who have experienced domestic violence, to improve physical and mental well-being.