FANY – Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps, Asylumn Aid and Eighteen and Under have been selected for the shortlist in the Charity Awards 2010 research, advice and support category

FANY – Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps

Speeding up disaster response

The aim of First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) is to support both the civil and military authorities, in particular during an emergency. With the City of London Police (CoLP) it created the Casualty Bureau Incident Support Officer role, now the operational mobile arm of the Casualty Bureau, assisting in the disaster victim identification process.

The need for the initiative arose after the 7/7 London bombings. Based on figures of 56 fatalities, 700 injured, and 44,000 calls made to the Casualty Bureau it was clear there was an urgent need for information to be transferred quickly and accurately back to the police. However, the process was taking up to eight hours. CoLP and the FANY indentified a role for a mobile unit of women support officers to assist at hospitals and the scene of an incident.

The officers are able to input details directly into laptop computers and special mobile phones so that data and intelligence can be sent back to CoLP immediately. This speeds up the process of disseminating facts about missing
persons and relaying this information to the public.

FANY’s achievement is measured by the fact it now has 36 trained ISO Casualty Bureau system experts on call 24/7 for an emergency. One of them says: “I feel the role helps the community in times of crisis and I would like to feel it is invaluable. By deploying teams of trained, organised, empathetic women to the scene of a major incident I believe we help create a sense of order amid chaos.”

Asylum Aid

Improving the treatment of women within the asylum process

Female asylum seekers now have a better chance at having their unique and complex issues understood and respected by the British immigration system as a result of a campaign by Asylum Aid.

In late 2008 the charity embarked on a campaign to promote a Charter of Rights of Women Seeking Asylum, designed to encourage cultural and strategic change within the UK Border Agency (UKBA). The charter was a response to the fact that cases of gender-specific persecution – such as rape, honour crimes and forced genital mutilation – were not well understood, or treated appropriately or sensitively.

The Charter, launched in October 2008, quickly attracted the support of other bodies working in the field; endorsed by 200 organisations and receiving backing from both the UNHCR and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Asylum Aid pushed the issue with relevant politicians and set up meetings with senior members of the UKBA to stress the urgency and importance of the issue. As a result, in December last year the UKBA chief executive appointed a member of its senior management team to lead on gender issues and put together its own action plan to deal with the treatment of women and women-specific issues within
the asylum process.

The charity’s advice work with asylum seekers has an application success rate of 93 per cent, three times the national average.

Eighteen and Under

Providing support for young victims of abuse

For any person who has been a victim of abuse, neglect, bullying, racism or homophobia, it can be very difficult to find the means to escape and recover from their harrowing experience.

Based in Dundee, Eighteen and Under offers support and advice to young people who are victims of abuse. The charity created the Violence Is Preventable (VIP) Project, a multi-award-winning abuse and violence prevention programme for children, young people and vulnerable adults
throughout the UK and abroad.

“Violent behaviour is increasing in Scotland and indeed worldwide, so we saw a great need for an evidence-based abuse and violence prevention programme,” says Irene
Clark, office manager at Eighteen and Under.

To date the VIP Project programme has been delivered to over 100,000 children. In 2009 alone, the programme was delivered to 5,600 school children, 251 teachers, 560 children in community groups and 2,000 senior citizens and
vulnerable adults. Training was also given to 36 agencies throughout the UK, including ten child protection agencies.
The delivery of the project manifested itself in around 10,000 telephone calls, 1,721 e-mails, 5,254 texts and 850 hours of face-to-face support.

Clark says: “The VIP Project has exceeded all our expectations. It is unique, exciting, has proven value in getting disclosures of abuse and is now the leading abuse prevention programme worldwide,” she adds.