Early 1990's
We are set up by a group of community workers and activists, who saw a need for more specialist, culturally diverse places for women in the North East. In the beginning, our focus was on economic exclusion – helping women become more independent through training and development. Our founders include Umme Imam, Fazeelat Faghar, Ruth Charlton, Iram Shah, Shamshad Iqbal, Ranjana Bell, Parveen Akhtar, Savitri Holmstrom, Pummi Mattu, Yasmin Kutub, Shehla Naqvi.
1995
The Angelou Centre becomes a registered charity. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s we become a vital training hub for Black and racialised communities in the West End of Newcastle. During this time we also began developing and running our parenting support programmes – early versions of the community empowerment and holistic support we offer families today.
2000
We launch the Options Project, which provides opportunities to Black women facing multiple barriers to employment. It includes childcare, support with job searching, training and guidance.
2001
Angelou sets up its first on-site creche, with support from the SureStart programme.
2003
We increase our involvement in policy development and research. We collaborate with the University of Northumbria to launch the Aspire project, which investigates the aspirations, training and employment needs of Black and minority ethnic women in the North East. And we participate in several networks and forums around childcare, employment and training, and domestic violence.
2005
The government changes the law so that people applying for long-term visas have to prove they can speak English. Demand for our training and development surges, and as more women use the centre it becomes an important place for women in the community. As women learn English they start to explore other courses and training. That begins to shift the levels of control their partners, in-laws and families have over them.
2007
The Angelou Centre takes over responsibility for the Regional Black Women’s Domestic Violence network, an important resource for BME women and professionals in the community. We start to identify a particular issue with migrant women describing domestic slavery conditions, and with the network we advocate for officials to improve support.
2009
It becomes clear that women can’t become independent without support to tackle violence and abuse they experience at home in their day to day lives. With funding from the Ministry of Justice, we begin our Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) service. It starts out as a network for survivors of forced marriage, so called honour-based abuse, female genital mutilation and domestic slavery. We also open our first mobile creche, offering childcare services in the community. Our childcare professionals are fluent in Arabic, Bengali, Sylheti, French, Hindi, Kurdish, Portuguese, Punjabi and Urdu – opening up accessible childcare to a whole range of families.
2010
Roshni, a South Asian Women’s Centre, closes its services and transfers its assets to the Angelou Centre. This allows us to purchase 17 Brighton Grove in the West End of Newcastle, where you’ll find us today. That same year, we developed our Violence Against Women and Girls work to offer a holistic model of support. We worked with over 100 women and children who had used our services to design a wrap-around service including counselling, therapeutic activities and training and development.
2017
When PANA, a local refuge for South Asian women closes down, Angelou steps in and opens our first haven. We have 5 beds to offer.
2018
We open our first haven for women with no recourse to public funds. Funded by the Tampon Tax, this allows us to add 5 more beds for single women.
2020
The coronavirus outbreak sweeps across the globe, and Black and minoritised women are disproportionately affected. In just 12 weeks, we saw a six-fold increase in the need for migrant women’s refuge accommodation, and a 40% increase in high risk referrals to our Violence Against Women and Girls services. We supported multiple women who experienced failures from other public services when they faced serious risk of harm. The Angelou Centre contributes written evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Public Services inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic. We highlight the inequity, additional barriers and systemic racism that Black and minoritised women and survivors of domestic abuse faced as a result of the public sector’s response. We call for ring-fenced resourcing, improved access to public services, and greater accountability of officials.
2020-2021
In response to the huge rise in demand for refuge housing, we open an additional 6 beds.
2021
As a result of work commissioned by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, we publish the “Hinterland of Marginality: The Increasing Exclusion of Migrant Women’s Rights under NRPF Rules in England & Wales” (2021). The report makes strong recommendations to the Home Office to improve support for women with no recourse to public funds. These included establishing a firewall between public services and immigration enforcement to prevent harmful information sharing that deters migrant survivors from seeking help.
2022
Funding from the local Police and Crime Commissioner and Comic Relief allows us to expand our work around sexual violence. We expand our reach to offer sexual violence support across Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland and Northumberland.
Today
We continue to offer holistic services for women and children across the North East. We look to expand our refuge capacity, and work closely with partner organisations and funders to help even more women and children become safe, independent and confident.