Misgav: Supporting skills development for minoritised disabled women

Misgav is a community organisation that supports skills development for minoritised disabled women in Hackney. Their mission is to provide a haven for women who need it most, where we offer opportunities for growth, for integration and simply - for acceptance. They do this through a range of activities and services including work and life skills for disabled women, activities to address food insecurity, benefits advice and casework with the local authorities to secure/revise those benefits and holistic mental health coordination. In 2024, Misgav received a grant of £60,000 (over 3 years) from our Women's Fund for London, contributing to salaries of five part time staff roles.

Misgav began in 2006 with two ambitious teenagers voluntarily running a weekly session of storytelling, singing and dancing for four women with disabilities. While opportunities for children with special needs were available, this was not the case for women over the age of 18. Now, nearly 20 years on, flexible core funding like this is essential to meet the growing project management costs of addressing the financial and wellbeing issues of our users and their families, addressing poverty and food insecurity of users and co-designing programmes of service with disabled households.

The length and flexibility of the funding enables Misgav to leverage match funding if needed when applying for other grants and ensures maximum impact from their work. The needs of minoritised disabled women are complex, with a range of causes of poverty for their intersectional audience and the entitled benefits of users often need to be fought for with long-term support.

Feedback from their users, and other minoritised disabled women in and around Hackney, have revealed that the key issues and needs are:-

• Information and practical help, including Misgav taking charge in advocacy and tribunals with the Local Authority to secure social care benefits for the first time or to obtain the level of support that the disabled person needs
• A varied, continuous service for disabled women so their primary carer can work or simply function /focus on own health needs. Misgav offer over 30 hours of programming a week, with continuity crucial at holiday times so their day and residential camps are seen as a lifelines for working carers
• Teaching disabled women life and work skills, helping them reach maximum independence and secure job placements in the community. This reduces carers’ duties, gives them more flexibility to work
• Mental health support for disabled women which extends to the carers and whole family
• Practical help which addresses the issues behind poor mental health – including signposting to other services, food vouchers and meals provided to address food poverty and 1:1 support from the Misgav team

The long fight for support

MA has been attending Misgav for 15 years, during Covid her social care package was drastically cut without informing her carers, it meant that from a very full-on programme of 35 hours per week she could only attend 20. The carers are elderly, the mother cares for a sick husband and her disabled daughter, she has no skills, internet access or time to advocate for her daughter. It took Misgav months and legal help but MA’s package is now 35 hours per week. Thanks to support and skills gained at Misgav group activities MA works at a local crafts shop, including advising customers; assisting with administrative work a charity office; works at a local nursery.

Partners on the Misgav job placement programme also report positive impact on their workforce and customers as result of having disabled women from Misgav on their teams. Members of the public have called Misgav to say how impressed they are with the women in their workplaces. One customer of a partnering shoe shop shared how professional their beneficiary was in her sales assistant role.

Work programmes that suit the individual

MT (who is 38 and learning disabled, with Global Developmental Delay) has various jobs arranged by Misgav. She thoroughly enjoys her jobs and takes pride in her work. MT likes to share with Misgav support staff and people around her what she managed to accomplish in work and how she is getting better at what she does. About her job in a nursery MT said “I used to be shy of the staff and not want to talk to them or take off my coat. But now I speak to them and I help a lot.”

In the past, MT needed support and recognition from the staff of Misgav's partnering organisations. She had to work on time management as she used to arrive at the wrong times, leading to anxiety and disappointments. She suffers from arthritis and therefore has difficulty getting from place to place, so initially her elderly mother had to be very involved in her work programme. This took away from her much-needed respite time.

Misgav have worked over the past 6 months with MT to try and test the jobs she enjoys most and what tasks she can and can’t do without support. There was an intense 2 weeks of calls to all of her jobs to hear about MT’s mood at work and her performance. Using all the information gathered. Misgav changed MT's work programme to better suit her needs. This included introducing a baking session once a week, providing MT a space to enjoy one-to-one attention and have a chance to share the things on her mind. It also involved making her journeys and jobs more manageable and providing a support worker for the jobs where assistance was necessary.

MT is now so calm and happy with her current work programme and is gaining so much from her positive work experiences.

Building more secure futures in 2025

The London Community Foundation is proud to support Misgav in their vital work and, thanks to the collective support of our donors, to build the financial resilience of women and their families across London.

In 2025, through the Women's Fund for London, we'd like to support even more community organisations providing longer-term support to enable women to build more secure financial futures free from poverty. We can’t do this alone. It is going to take a powerful, collective effort from all of us to give women the fair chance they deserve. You too, can make a difference by donating to our Women’s Fund for London to build a brighter future for women in London.