Anawim - Birmingham‚äôS Centre For Women Limited
Charity 1159706
Overview
Summary
Anawim appears to function as a women-centred stabilisation and inclusion hub for people facing overlapping disadvantage, rather than as a single-issue service. Its model combines voluntary support with work linked to community sentences, bringing practical advice, specialist safeguarding and developmental support into one setting. This suggests a role at the intersection of criminal justice, poverty, family wellbeing and recovery, with an emphasis on reducing exclusion before it deepens into custody, homelessness or further crisis.
Operational geography
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Balsall Heath West
Confidence: low
Direct current evidence identifies Anawim Women's Centre in Balsall Heath as the location for its in-person drop-in and core support. The supplied evidence does not establish the ward-level geography of this activity.
- Anawim, 'How we provide support' (current service webpage)
States that the women's centre provides counselling, courses, activities, practical essentials, criminal-justice support, mental-health support and abuse-related advice; it says services happen at Anawim's base and gives the in-person drop-in location as Anawim Women's Centre in Balsall Heath. - Anawim, 'Drop In' (current service webpage)
Confirms that the general drop-in operates at Anawim Women's Centre in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.
Remaining uncertainties
- The evidence supports a citywide service catchment rather than a network of sites across Birmingham: Anawim states that it supports women 'from across Birmingham', but its current public information identifies one principal women’s-centre base in Balsall Heath. The supplied evidence does not establish the ward-level geography of this activity.
- Anawim's 2023-24 impact report records delivery in courts, custody suites, community settings and at Ardenleigh Secure Forensic Unit through criminal-justice and mental-health partnerships. It does not provide enough current, location-specific detail to assign these activities to additional supplied Birmingham wards.
- The 2023-24 impact report says a charity shop moved to Moseley High Street, but current service information describes the pre-loved hub as based at Anawim Women's Centre in Balsall Heath. It is therefore unclear whether a separate Moseley site remains operational.
- Partnerships with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Probation and other referral organisations materially broaden access to Anawim's services, particularly through criminal-justice pathways. The available evidence does not establish a distinct current Birmingham geography for each partnership.
Additional evidence needed
- A current annual report, impact report or service-delivery plan specifying active outreach, court, custody-suite, hospital, prison and community appointment locations.
- Current confirmation of whether Anawim operates any physical premises beyond its women's-centre base, including the reported Moseley High Street charity shop.
- Current commissioning or partnership documentation defining the Birmingham geographic footprint of the Health and Justice Vulnerability Service, New Chance and community rehabilitation work.
Areas of work
- Accommodation/housing
- Economic/community Development/employment
- Education/training
- General Charitable Purposes
- The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Who they help
- Children/young People
- Elderly/old People
- Other Defined Groups
- The General Public/mankind
How they help
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Provides Buildings/facilities/open Space
- Provides Other Finance
- Provides Services
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A bridge between support and criminal justice
The organisation appears to provide a community-based alternative or complement to custody for some women, while also serving women who attend voluntarily. This may position it as a bridge between statutory justice pathways and trusted, non-custodial support.
Why it matters
This helps explain why its work may have significance beyond individual support: it may influence whether women experiencing multiple disadvantages are dealt with through punishment alone or through coordinated community intervention.
Show evidence
“Women attend voluntarily or as part of their community sentences as alternatives to custody.”
Source:Organisation“The centre supports vulnerable and/or chaotic women.”
Source:Organisation
Designed for overlapping needs rather than a single problem
Its one-stop-shop approach appears intended for women whose exclusion is shaped by several connected pressures, including abuse, health, substance use, housing, finances and family breakdown. The organisation may therefore reduce the burden of navigating fragmented services.
Why it matters
The distinctive value may lie in integration: practical, therapeutic and safeguarding support can be addressed together, where treating one issue in isolation may be ineffective.
Show evidence
“The centre uses a one stop shop approach.”
Source:Organisation“It provides one-to-one interventions, counselling, courses, money advice, family services and an IDVA service.”
Source:Organisation“The objects identify social exclusion linked to financial hardship, ill health, substance dependency, relationship breakdown, poor housing and crime.”
Source:Charity Commission
Safeguarding and social inclusion are treated as connected
The inclusion of an IDVA service alongside money, family and counselling support suggests that safety from abuse may be understood as inseparable from economic stability, family circumstances and longer-term participation in society.
Why it matters
This indicates a potentially important operating assumption: women may be unable to sustain progress in education, employment, housing or justice pathways unless immediate safety and coercion are also addressed.
Show evidence
“Specialised support includes money advice, family services and the IDVA service.”
Source:Organisation“Vulnerable women include women who have been or are at risk of physical, sexual, emotional or psychological abuse.”
Source:Charity Commission
- It is unclear which women are referred through justice agencies and which partnerships make community-sentence support possible.
- There is no evidence on geographic reach, scale, outcomes, repeat engagement or the balance between direct delivery and referral.
- The evidence does not show whether children, older people and the general public receive direct support or are recorded as indirect beneficiaries.
Remaining uncertainties
- Referral, partnership and commissioning information, especially involving courts, probation, housing, health and domestic-abuse services.
- Recent annual reports or impact data showing beneficiary profiles, service use, outcomes and unmet demand.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
Women's Centre in Birmingham working to a 'one stop shop' approach. We support some of the most vulnerable &/or chaotic women who attend voluntarily or as part of their community sentences as alternatives to custody. We employ one-to-one interventions, counselling, a wide range of courses & specialised support services:Money Advice, Family Services and the IDVA service.
Charity objects
THE OBJECTS OF THE CHARITY (THE OBJECTS) ARE, FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, THE PROMOTION OF SOCIAL INCLUSION BY PREVENTING VULNERABLE WOMEN AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES FROM BEING SOCIALLY EXCLUDED, RELIEVING THE NEEDS OF SUCH PEOPLE WHO ARE SOCIALLY EXCLUDED AND ASSISTING THEM TO INTEGRATE INTO SOCIETY BY ALL MEANS THAT ARE CHARITABLE IN LAW. SOCIALLY EXCLUDED MEANS BEING EXCLUDED FROM SOCIETY, OR PARTS OF SOCIETY, AS A RESULT OF ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING FACTORS: UNEMPLOYMENT; FINANCIAL HARDSHIP; YOUTH OR OLD AGE; ILL HEALTH (PHYSICAL OR MENTAL); SUBSTANCE ABUSE OR DEPENDENCY INCLUDING ALCOHOL AND DRUGS; DISCRIMINATION ON THE GROUNDS OF SEX, RACE, DISABILITY, ETHNIC ORIGIN, RELIGION, BELIEF, CREED, SEXUAL ORIENTATION OR GENDER RE-ASSIGNMENT; POOR EDUCATIONAL OR SKILLS ATTAINMENT; RELATIONSHIP AND FAMILY BREAKDOWN; POOR HOUSING (THAT IS HOUSING THAT DOES NOT MEET BASIC HABITABLE STANDARDS); CRIME (EITHER AS A VICTIM OF CRIME OR AS AN OFFENDER); AND VULNERABLE WOMEN MEANS WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN, OR ARE AT RISK OF BEING, PHYSICALLY, SEXUALLY, EMOTIONALLY OR PSYCHOLOGICALLY ABUSED OR EXPERIENCED HOMELESSNESS, MENTAL, PHYSICAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE MISUSE PROBLEMS OR INVOLVED IN PROSTITUTION.