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.

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

Today’s reflection comes from Tallulah Maria Santos , a member of Abianda’s Young Women's Advisory Group and one of our first Interns. Her piece centres young women as experts in their own lives, naming what it means to be misunderstood, spoken over, and still hold clarity about your own power, dreams and aspirations. “Hidden but not silent” is not just a theme, it is a commitment. It is about recognising the women whose compassion fuels our communities. It is about ensuring

This week, in the lead-up to International Women’s Day, Abianda will be sharing a series of reflections under the theme Hidden, But Not Silent . Across the week, you’ll hear voices from across our organisation, from Abianda’s Young Women's Advisory Group, trustees, our team, and our founder Abi. This is a moment to centre the incredible women who shape Abianda every day, and the knowledge, care and resistance they bring into the work. These are not polished statements or camp

Following on from our last blog on Digital Harm … Sophie (Admin and Operations Intern) and Fee (Head of Programmes - Borough Provision) are curious; what were your reflections on our first set of questions? You can find a reminder of them below… If online spaces were safe for young women and girls, what would they notice? About the spaces and about themselves? What difference might this make? How does Social Media support us to resist in powerful and positive ways? When it

At the end of last year, our wonderful new Head of Partnerships and Development Antoinette Wood reflects on the Youth Endowment Fund's Children, Violence and Vulnerability 2025: Exploitation and Gangs report . As the year draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on what really matters in the work I do, and where I want to be putting my energy. What’s already clear in my first couple of weeks at Abianda, is how closely our values align. A shared belief that young women and gi

At Abianda we work with young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence. As part of our reflections of this year’s 16 Days of Activism, Fee (Head of Programmes for Borough Provision) sat down with Sophie (Admin & Operations Intern) to talk about what she thinks it's important that we highlight about this year’s theme of Digital Harm, with the young women and girls we work with in mind. We started off by reflecting on the statement provided by a statement

The past year at Abianda has just been full of great opportunities. I have been reflecting on everything that being at Abianda has taught me about the world and the challenges that most young women and girls face. I have always loved Abianda’s approach and being able to be a part of evoking that approach has been amazing. Working alongside passionate, skilled women has been amazing to see and do and you guys really are a testament to Abianda and everything it stands for. Even

The first ever Abianda Insider podcast episode has been released! This is an introduction to Abianda. You'll hear from our host, Admin & Operations Intern Tallulah as well as other Abianda team members, including young women. Our next episode will be an interview with our Founder & CEO Abi Billinghurst. You can listen here . Thank you to the team at Prospex Youth Club for their support with the podcast production. We look forward to amplifying young women's voices with the