Programmes seeking to establish Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces should start by mapping existing services, the needs of survivors and gaps in service provision. Mapping existing survivor support services helps ensure that Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces are adequately linked up to other services, with clear referral pathways for survivors, that they are not duplicating existing services, and that they are better placed to fill gaps in service provision.

Survivors of VAWG are at risk of re-traumatisation and other mental health challenges which can be triggered by insensitive service delivery. Staff in Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces need to be trained in a survivor-centred approach: to put the safety and comfort of survivors at the forefront of service delivery, ensure survivors know they are believed, avoid intrusive questioning, ensure survivors have access to support at all stages and allow survivors to engage at their own pace.

VAWG survivors - and women and girls at risk of violence - are not a homogenous group. They come from diverse backgrounds and life experiences and are therefore likely to face different barriers to accessing services. All response programmes should work with a range of survivors during the design phase and throughout, to conduct an intersectional analysis of their different needs and the barriers that they face. Depending on context, programme teams should consider the specific barriers that may be faced by survivors with disabilities, child and adolescent survivors, survivors who have been displaced from their homes, survivors living in rural or hard-to-reach locations, and survivors with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.

Survivors - and women and girls at risk - may require multiple services to support their recovery and protection. Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces should work with other service providers to establish comprehensive referral mechanisms to ensure survivors know where to access the support they need. Services they are likely to need access to include but are not limited to:

• Medical care: Survivors may need urgent medical treatment, mental health services, and sexual reproductive health services. This could be to treat injuries, test for and treat sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and to provide prenatal care or contraceptive provision. Read more on strengthening health services.
• Psychosocial support: This focuses on addressing the psychological and social impacts of VAWG by supporting survivors and their families to heal and build resilience and supporting survivors to be active agents in rebuilding their own lives, families and communities. Read more on providing mental health and psychosocial support. 
• Social support: VAWG survivors often face higher risks of discrimination from communities. To support them to reintegrate, Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces should consider providing shelter, safety planning, rehabilitation, safe spaces for children, financial aid, income generation, and skills development. Read more on supporting the reintegration of survivors.
• Legal/Justice support: Activities related to legal and justice support could include support filing police complaints, accessing legal services from voluntary lawyers, NGOs and State Legal Services, support during Court Trials from Public Prosecutors, and medico-legal support. Read more on improving access to justice and legal services.

Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces should be established for and run by women. They should include women and girls from diverse backgrounds in the leadership, design, implementation and monitoring of these spaces. Women and girls’ preferences should inform the opening hours and location of the space and the types of activities that will be undertaken. These could include access to medical care, economic empowerment activities, and access to justice services. Programmes should engage with networks of WROs to understand the needs of women, the barriers they may face to accessing Safe Spaces, and to develop ways to overcome these. In many cases, Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces are confidential and not widely advertised to avoid backlash and to protect the women and girls using them. Programmes could consider working with existing networks of WROs and CSOs to spread the word about Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces to those who need them.

Service providers working with VAWG survivors are likely to be exposed repeatedly to distressing situations which can cause secondary trauma and burnout. In order for staff to be able to provide high quality care to survivors, they must have access to a supportive environment and care for themselves. When developing a culture of self-care, start by considering the following:

• Work with staff to identify self-care suggestions. For example: being intentional about the media and information sources we engage with; prioritising time to engage in activities that bring us joy; looking after our whole body, mind and spirit through dancing, exercise, prayer, meditation, intimacy, cooking etc., reaching out to others and practicing small acts of kindness.
• Integrate self and collective care within programme culture. For example: introducing flexible working hours where possible; setting a limit on extended workdays; establishing a wellbeing officer and facilitating personal check-ins with staff; offering support services such as counselling for staff; celebrating staff for their efforts; facilitating joint meditations such as breathing exercises or dances; establishing clear processes for identifying burnout and redistributing work appropriately.
• Work with staff to identify risks of backlash and implement mitigation strategies. For example: providing safe transport for staff moving to and from safe spaces; ensuring the outside areas of safe spaces are well lit and secure; ensuring any staff engaging with online promotion of safe spaces have a designated person they can go to if they face online abuse and harassment; establishing protocols for how to support staff if they have experienced online or in person backlash due to their involvement within safe spaces. Read more on handing backlash and resistance.

At present, there is limited evidence about the effectiveness of Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces in the Global South, particularly in areas that are not densely populated. This does not mean they don’t work, but rather that there are flaws in tracking correlations with recurrence of victimisation and perpetration. Thus, Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces should establish effective monitoring, learning and evaluation processes, which will help them to adapt their approaches to better serve survivors, learn lessons and produce evidence in impact. Seeking feedback from survivors who use the services, as well as those who accompany and support survivors is a key element of this.