This quarter, more than most, has reminded us why partnership work matters, not as a line in a report, but as something that actually changes what's possible for the young women we exist to support. We've spent time meeting with organisations doing brilliant work in this space, Power to Prevail, Art Against Knives, and others who rarely make headlines but sharpen how we think regardless. And our free Bitesize seminar sold out in two hours, before we'd even posted it on Linked

By Alex Honnan-MacDonald Head of Programmes - Systems Change Abianda’s Solution-Focussed Brief Therapy (SFBT) approach is not only present in our work with girls & young women (GYW), but is integrated into Abianda’s ‘system’ and internal processes, such as through line-management supervisions, our monthly all-team meetings and team collaboration on internal process design and development. An example of how we use SFBT in monthly line-management supervision is having a section

By Antoinette Wood Head of Partnerships and Development Solution-focused practice starts from a simple but often overlooked idea: a young woman is the expert in her own life. As our Young Women and Girls Practitioner puts it, it's about helping her imagine a world where she isn't defined by what's happened to her. It's one where she's encouraged to recognise her own resilience and skills, rather than being seen only through the lens of risk. It's important to highlight that

By Abi Billinghurst Founder and CEO When I established Abianda, I chose solution-focused practice as one of the foundations of our model. It was not simply a collection of techniques. It offered a way of thinking about girls and young women, about knowledge and expertise, about power, and about the role of the practitioner. At its heart it seems like a simple idea: the young woman has knowledge, skills and resources that are essential to creating change. Our role is not to ar

By Angelina Duke Alexander Senior Young Women and Girls Practitioner - Systems Change Our Systems Change Experts (SCEs) were asked one question: If services were working well with young women and girls what would you be pleased to notice? This is very much a solution focused way of asking questions. It's asking young women to imagine a future or outcome, and describe it. How would they know? What would they notice that would tell them that things were as they needed to be? Th

By Abi Billinghurst Founder and CEO This quarter we have seemed seeped in risk assessment work! Abianda has continued working with Research in Practice and the University of Lancashire on the MOPAC-funded risk and needs project. We have heard directly from young women about what works and what does not work within statutory assessment processes. We will share this learning as the project develops - initial insights chime with what we find in our work in how we understand conc

By Abi Billinghurst Founder and CEO Hello. Thanks for clicking the link and taking time to delve into the work we are doing here at Abianda! This quarter focuses on one of the four pillars of Abianda’s model: solution-focused practice. This theme feels particularly relevant after a quarter in which much of our work has explored how systems understand and respond to girls and young women whose lives do not fit neatly within a single service. Much of my conversations and thinki

I recently returned to the University of Oxford to contribute to the Europaeum Scholars Programme, alongside my brilliant colleague Charlie Cross. Over a number of years, I have had the privilege of regularly contributing to this programme. Each time, I am reminded of its importance. The Europaeum brings together doctoral scholars from across Europe - people who may become some of our future policymakers, government advisors, researchers and institutional leaders. It creates

Today is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, a day that can too easily become a day of statistics and sombre reflection. This year, I'd like to spend it differently: looking at what's working, and asking what more we could build. A key area of support for under‑18s affected by exploitation is the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs), professionals who advise and support children who have been, or are suspected of being, trafficked. In March 2025, guardians s

Our CEO and Founder, Abi Billinghurst, has written about Abianda's work and our role in the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) Girls and Young Women Local Groups Fund, reflecting on why she set up Abianda, what makes our model of practice distinct, and what it means to work alongside partners we hold in such high regard. Since founding Abianda in 2011, our starting point with every young woman and girl we work with has been the same question: what is happening arou

By Charlie Cross Senior Systems Change Expert It was such a pleasure to welcome a visitor Hindpal Singh Bhui, Trustee from the Triangle Trust to this week’s team meeting at Abianda. The meeting flowed so naturally, and it was lovely to have someone join us who genuinely understood and valued our culture and strengths-focused approach. I always find it inspiring to hear from people who are so passionate about creating change. Listening to the work he does across the world to m

This quarter has seen several significant partnerships focused on improving how systems understand and respond to girls and young women affected by criminal exploitation and violence.

Professionals across different services work incredibly hard to support girls and young women within their own areas of responsibility. However, systems do not always create opportunities to bring those perspectives together.

Our ecological model is something we use to understand how harm shows up for young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence, to articulate the service response needed for their care to be effective, and to evidence the ways that they can too often be made invisible within the systems that they should be able to rely on to create safety.

Abianda treats my lived experience as real knowledge. It is taken seriously and used meaningfully, not shared as a story for impact alone.

Abianda’s four practice pillars are best understood not as separate approaches, but as an integrated framework for working with complexity.

By Abi Billinghurst Founder and CEO Risk is in the day-to-day language of our work at Abianda. We operate in it as default. Young women’s lives are often shaped by it. Safeguarding systems are built around it. Professional meetings, assessments, interventions and decision-making are saturated with it. Our work requires us to sit constantly with uncertainty, ambiguity, consequence and harm - trying to navigate complex realities where there are rarely neat or risk-free answers

We have been working closely with Research in Practice and University of Lancashire to develop understanding of risk and needs assessments for girls and young women affected by violence, exploitation and 'gangs'. We are leading on the work with young women to elicit their expertise, who have first hand experience of risk and needs assessments, as to what works and doesn't work. Learning from young women with lived experience of these systems and processes will directly i

Today is National Child Exploitation Awareness Day . With this year's theme of preventing abuse through exploitation by working in partnership , we wanted to share the work our Founder & CEO, Abi, has recently done in collaboration with the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) . LIIA has produced a Safeguarding Adolescence in London (SAIL) Toolkit where you can find a range of expert opinions, tools and resources to support your safeguarding efforts. Abi w

This week at Abianda we’ve been sharing reflections under the theme Hidden, But Not Silent, voices from across our organisation exploring what it means for young women’s experiences to be misunderstood, overlooked or misread by the systems around them. For International Women’s Day, our founder Abi Billinghurst offers a reflection on hope, participation and the steady work of shifting systems so girls and young women affected by exploitation and violence can be seen, hear

Happy International Women's Day. This morning's reflection comes from Alex M, our Training and Development Lead. Drawing on her own experience of being seen and supported as a young girl, Alex reflects on what happens when those conditions, time, curiosity, belief and relationship, are absent for others. Across this week of Hidden, But Not Silent, we’ve heard how young women’s voices are often misunderstood, overlooked or misread by the systems around them. Alex’s piece bring

Today’s reflection comes from Rula , an Abianda Trustee whose work spans systems change and children’s services. She offers a personal lens on quiet resistance, the subtle, everyday ways women reclaim space, autonomy and power, often overlooked by systems that only recognise certain kinds of strength. Shopping in the men’s section… Conforming is not my thing. Shopping in the men’s section is one small act of rebellion. I grew up in an era where girls’ clothing was fitted, r

Today’s reflection comes from Antoinette, Abianda’s Head of Partnerships & Development, sharing a perspective from being new into the organisation — exploring how participation, trust and care are practised, and how that quietly reshapes leadership, voice and belonging. Since joining Abianda, I’ve been struck by how trust is practised here, not just talked about. Trust in time. Trust in people. Trust that you don’t have to over perform competence or resilience to belong. Week

Today’s reflection comes from Carla , an Abianda Trustee with over two decades of experience across safeguarding and the Violence Against Women and Girls sector. Her piece names how systems often misread young women’s resistance, and what becomes hidden when process, thresholds and professional language take precedence over listening, care and accountability. I’ve sat with young women labelled as disengaged, resistant, hard to reach, when in reality they were calculating ris