Amplifying Our Voice: Why The NWJC Has Developed Briefing Papers

As a coalition, we strongly believe we can achieve more when we work together. To that end, our briefing papers have been developed as communications tools to help to strengthen our collective voice.

The NWJC was founded to elevate and strengthen the influencing power of specialist women’s organisations, and establish itself as a ‘go-to’ group for expertise on policy and good practice for women affected by the criminal justice system. As of May 2024, the NWJC includes 26 partner organisations, each of which works with women in trauma-informed and gender-responsive ways.

Other partners share many of the same goals and values but comprise a diverse group of organisations spread across a large geographical area. These organisations are different sizes, have different specialisms, face different challenges, and are at different stages of their development. For some, the priority is to develop new criminal justice and women’s services and broaden their remit and reach. Whereas for others, their focus is on securing funding to remain operational and resourced to deliver services to targeted groups of women and girls.

It’s important to acknowledge and value the considerable expertise and experience each of our partner organisation brings to the coalition. Our partners know how women’s centres work because they run them. They understand the disadvantages and inequalities women in contact with the criminal justice system face because they support them to address these challenges; and they know why partnership working is so valuable because they work collaboratively.

Our briefing papers aim to harness the collective wisdom shared by the NWJC membership group and disseminate this knowledge and insight in ways that can be utilised across the criminal justice and women’s sectors. They enable us to succinctly communicate a set of core messages on behalf of a wide group of women’s organisations and include the insight and perspectives of women with lived experience. These briefing papers provide a means for championing best practice, promoting evidence-based support models, demonstrating positive impact and improving outcomes for both women’s organisations and the women they seek to support.

Links to the briefing papers
Understanding how women’s centres work
Why women’s centres and specialist services need sustainable funding
Understanding the disadvantage and inequality experienced by women in contact with the criminal justice system
Understanding a Whole Systems Approach and why partnership working is valuable in the women’s sector

How can you help?
Please promote the briefing papers widely. Share them via your own websites or link to them on social media. Tell other organisations if you find them helpful and what they can be used for.

All the NWJC briefing papers can be downloaded for free from the NWJC website for organisational, individual and public use. They are also available through our new Resource Library. The Library catalogues over 90 evidence-based resources relevant to the criminal justice and women’s sectors. Users can search for content using themes, key words, organisations and format.

We have also published a guidance document to support women’s organisations to use NWJC briefing papers to best effect. Please download your copy here.