The Client: working at the intersection of VAWG, faith and ethnicity in London

The main challenge for the project was prioritising between different activities – providing training and emotional support to grassroots groups, influencing local authorities and central government and facilitating the birth of the Faith and VAWG Coalition (launched in 2020). The only full-time staff member was a natural networker and big thinker who often found herself stretched. The Curiosity Society team provided structure and framing to this challenge, collating data to evidence the tacit knowledge of the team and facilitating points of reflection leading to decision-making.

What We Did: co-created a customised learning framework

The Curiosity Society was the project’s learning partner from 2017-2020. We co-created an impact and learning framework centred on integrity, relationships and bridge-building as essential for the project to empower women. We helped SAFE deeply deliberate on their work - coaching the project coordinator, facilitating advisory group meetings and creating learning reports.

“What we value most about working with the Curiosity Society is the combination of their adaptability to the challenging nature of our workload, our risk levels and lack of resources and an ability see our project’s potential. They have the skill to make seemingly hard-to-measure concepts like integrity, trust and empowerment appear as data that could be understood and tell the story of our project.”

Huda Jawad, project founder

What Happened: listening, convening and influencing create impact

For the final report for the SAFE Communities project, we interviewed and surveyed those it affected and mapped the networks and systems it influenced, bringing in wisdom from the advisory group of peers. We built on the impact and learning framework to demonstrate how the project had successfully played the roles of knowledge hub, broker and influencer.

The report was featured at the SAFE Conference in March 2020, which was the official launch of the Faith and VAWG Coalition. The Coalition brings together a range of organisations and activists who support survivors from faith communities. Over the course of 2020, the Coalition became the main focus of the SAFE project founder and the Coalition has asked the Curiosity Society to be its learning and design partner for the future.

“Working with the Curiosity Society has been a lifeline. They have the skill to make seemingly hard concepts to measure like integrity, trust and empowerment appear as data that could be understood and tells the story of our project to date. In doing so, we have been able to make difficult decisions about resources, strategy and the future of the work. As a result of their support we have developed a trusted and hard-won reputation in the sector for doing unique and innovative work that is both necessary and valuable.”

Huda Jawad, project founder