The cost-of-living crisis is having a serious and detrimental impact on women's organisations: they continue to struggle with increasing demand for their services, while funding is in even shorter supply. They are dealing with more complex workloads, as women they support are experiencing compounded issues of violence, poverty, debt, financial dependence and discrimination. 

The burgeoning crisis was addressed collectively by women's VAWG (violence against women and girls) organisations across the UK in this statement.

Organisations in London followed suit, with their own briefing about their regional situation and what needs to be done.

Off the back of this concerted effort, in February 2023, the London Mayor announced emergency funding for equalities organisations, with ring-fenced funding for VAWG organisations. 

And in March 2023, the Home Office committed £300,000 to be distributed as one-off payments to survivors fleeing abusers. 

Our collective voice has a greater impact!

So, what more can we do?

• Following a survey conducted in March 2023, WRC published a report investigating the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on women's organisations and their service users. We will use this in our lobbying and campaigning efforts going forward. Thank you to those of you who gave your time to fill out the survey. Read the full report and executive summary here.

• WRC held an online meeting about the cost-of-living crisis on March 23rd. Read a write-up of the event here.

• WRC is coordinating a broad appeal petition from the sector that hopes to get more government attention on the issues facing women and women's organisations.  

We are building a consolidated campaign to campaign for better funding support for the women's sector, as well as better public policies for women and girls. 

Speaking Up for Women Campaign