Creating bridges: choice and empowerment at the heart of our work with local churches

We are passionate about embedding our work in supportive local church communities and we are passionate about honouring women’s choices and voices.

Sexual exploitation in essence involves a removal of choice and a silencing or ignoring of women’s voices. Empowerment to begin a journey of recovery therefore necessitates an environment where respect of choices and voices are encouraged and heard and where the message of ‘we hear you and your voice matters’ is paramount.

We don’t always get this right, but our desire is for this message to be a heartbeat than runs through everything we do and the local church can have a significant part to play in creating this environment of healthy relationships, respect and care.

So, what does this look like in practice?

Bridges to local church – embedded in the way we approach empowerment of voices

We are launching a new initiative called Orchards Voices which includes:

- Regular consultations with women in our housing and support work to help us improve our direct support to women

- Women’s boards - a leadership space where women at involved in Orchards can grow in confidence in using their voice and be empowered to feed into strategic decisions. Our church befriender role and service design were developed after consultation within this forum

- Monthly news videos for women we connect with; creating a sense of community as we run more events for women and strengthening bridges into local churches events for women who choose to explore faith for themselves

- Creative content developed by and for women with lived experience of sexual exploitation to inspire, empower and encourage one another and if they choose to sensitively explore faith together.

Empowerment and choice at the heart of our church partnership approach.

We love working with local churches – and through these safe, everyday communities – lovingly committed for the long-term – a woman has the option to restore a healthy idea of choice, to rebuild trust with wider society at her own pace, and to explore a new sense of belonging.

 We hold the intertwine between a church partnership model and maintaining empowerment and choice through creating bridges to local churches which women can choose to cross.  

We let women know right from the start that we work in partnership with local churches and they will have the opportunity to connect with a volunteer from a local church if they would like to. This is a relational space where they can be heard, known, encouraged and reconnect with their own passions and interests. During their time at Orchards women are welcome and supported to connect into church communities or explore faith for themselves, but their choice to do so in no way affects the unconditional support that Orchards offers. 

Through everything we do, we want to see each woman we come alongside grow in knowing she is seen, heard and known. That she has a voice and her voice matters.