Our Annual Report

November 2024

Our annual report highlights concern about increasing destitution among women and lack of appropriate services to support them.

Today (28 November 2024), as part of the UN 16 Days of Action to End Violence Against Women, we are publishing our latest annual report which tells the story of a year of our work – a year when we saw unprecedented demand for our services. 

Last year there were more than 2,000 visits to our women only ‘drop-in’ day centre in the King’s Cross area of London, where there is food, hot drinks, showers, laundry and clothes, all cost free and no appointment needed.

Our team also provided one-to-one support and advocacy to women who indicated they needed help with housing, addictions, health problems and more. We undertook early morning and late night shifts to reach more than 400 women in different parts of London, including those rough-sleeping and in other isolated and high risk situations.

This level of need is tremendous and indicates the increasing destitution of the most economically excluded women, desperate housing pressures in London, the impact of hostile environment immigration policies, and the specific risk to women of harm in sexual exploitation. 

Women at The Well CEO Sarah Green said:

“The level of demand for our services, including women dealing with destitution in a very wealthy city, reveals that the safety nets many of us like to think are there for everyone fail to catch some of those who need them the most.

 We will continue to be relentless in our provision of unconditional support to women who need it – and we urge all those around us to support us in any way you can – with a regular donation, volunteering your time, or by spreading the word about our work.

 But we also urge all those with policy and commissioning power to look into the life stories of the most excluded women and why systems fail them and how this can be turned around.

We also need an urgent conversation as a society about why women facing multiple disadvantages are put at serious risk of sexual exploitation, including abuse in prostitution, and why this is rarely problematised. The Government has a mission to halve violence against women and girls. It is critical that the women facing persistent and repeated abuse through their lives, which often includes sexual exploitation, are put at the heart of this work.”

The 2023/24 annual report also includes stories of hope, a tribute to the volunteers who make our work possible, and detail on how we organise and fund our work. We hope the report will be shared widely to help build the community of support around us.