Tees Valley Inclusion Project is a specialist by and for provider, dedicated to addressing honour-based abuse, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation (FGM) affecting Black, Minority Ethnic and Refugee (BMER) women and girls across the UK. During the financial year, the organisation continued its vital work as the UK's leading specialist charity in this field, combining direct support services, policy advocacy, and systemic change initiatives. Tees Valley Inclusion Project remains the only by and for registered provider delivering an end-to-end specialist victim service, with face to face support for cultural harms (domestic and sexual violence) to Black and Minority Ethnic women and girls across all communities in Tees Valley, Durham and North Yorkshire. Our victim support encompasses high risk crimes of honour-based abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, with our women and girls remaining among the most vulnerable in the area, facing extreme gendered poverty, English as a second language barriers, and ostracisation by families and communities. They are isolated and have often endured abuse for years prior to reaching out at crisis point for help. We turn no woman away, and often we are the only service that understands, believes and advocates on her behalf. A major development this year was the establishment of our dedicated Aftercare Programme, delivered through National Lottery funding as part of our three-year BME victim service blueprint. This programme addresses a critical gap identified through survivor feedback - the period after immediate crisisintervention when women remain at significant risk of isolation, re-victimisation, and disengagement from support. The Aftercare Programme provides structured, longer-term support including independent living skills, ongoing safety planning, peer support networks, and pathways into education, training and employment. Survivors consistently told us that crisis support alone was insufficient; recovery and genuine independence require sustained, culturally competent support well beyond the point of immediate safety. Early outcomes from the Aftercare Programme show improved sustained independent living and reduced repeat presentations to crisis services, demonstrating the value of investing in survivors' longer term journeys rather than crisis response alone.

Our key stakeholders continue to include Cleveland, Durham and North Yorkshire Police in relation to commissioned services and improvements identified through operational policing. We remain engaged with all North East police forces in the ongoing implementation of recommendations from our Police Supercomplaint - "Invisible Survivors - The Long Wait for Justice"upheld by HMICFRS. The National Lottery Community Fund remains our key strategic partner, continuing to fund our three year programme implementing a blueprint approach to the BME victim service model. This year's significant milestone within the programme was the development and launch of our Aftercare Programme, directly informed by survivor consultation that identified sustained, longer-term support as essential to genuine recovery and independence. This BME community-led project continues to be shaped by survivors, evolving and embedding a blueprint for the safeguarding response required for Black and Minority Ethnic women and girls, including those from migrant communities with No Recourse to Public Funds. We continue to engage with a range of universities and colleges, namely Manchester Metropolitan University, Lancashire, York, Teesside and the Bloomsbury Group, in the delivery of the Halo University Hubs programme, now expanding to additional institutions including Newcastle University. Our student-led programmes continue to provide employability and volunteering opportunities, with our employability project with DWP continuing to provide early intervention and access support for BME women preparing for employment. Consultation with communities remains a key priority. We continue engaging with new and emerging communities, including sustained increases in referrals from GRT communities. Survivor feedback through our Aftercare Programme consultation has directly shaped its design and delivery, reinforcing our commitment to ensuring intersectionality remains paramount within our victim service model and delivery. Survivors themselves remain our most critical stakeholder group, consulted through our established Survivor Forums which meet regularly to inform service design, identify emerging community need, and review the effectiveness of existing support pathways. Feedback gathered through these forums directly shaped the development of our Aftercare Programme, with survivors consistently highlighting the gap between crisis intervention and sustained independence as a priority area for development. In response, we restructured elements of our care pathway, extended the duration of formal support plans, and introduced peer-led aftercare sessions facilitated by survivors who have themselves progressed through our service. We have also continued to strengthen lived experience representation on our Board, ensuring survivor voice informs governance decisions as well as operational delivery. Local authority commissioners across Cleveland, Durham and North Yorkshire remain key stakeholders, with whom we consult regularly regarding service gaps, safeguarding thresholds, and emerging risk within BME communities, ensuring our provision remains responsive to both statutory requirements and the lived realities of the women and girls we support.

Yasmin Khan received remuneration of £30,720 for services rendered to the CIC in the period.

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration