On Sunday, February 2, 2025 some of the staff, volunteer, and trustee team at Kairos Women Working Together will be supporting Lianne Kirkman from The Esther Project in Leamington Spa as she completes a 10 night sleepout, spending each night with specialist women's services around the country, to raise awareness of women's homelessness, the needs of women who face multiple disadvantage, and to call for investment in specialist women's services. On Sunday, February 7th we will meet with Lianne to share best practice, identify gaps in service, and discuss opportunities to work together to advocate for and deliver women's services in Coventry and Warwickshire to meet these gaps. We will then join the team at Embrace for their Sunday evening street-based outreach in Coventry, speaking to women with lived experience about what they see as key priorities. Next, we will spend the night 'sleeping rough' locally with Lianne and members of the Embrace team. Please show your support for Kairos by sponsoring us to support this initiative. Your donations, no matter how small, will be much appreciated because we can't do what we do without the support of the community.

Kellie, our CEO, had this to say about the sleepout: "Kairos is delighted to support Lianne from The Esther Project on her 10 day sleep-out. Of course, choosing to ‘sleep rough’ can never be compared to the harsh realities faced by women in our community who have no safe space to call home, but we see taking part as a great opportunity to raise awareness of the need for specialist women’s services. At Kairos, we believe that every woman matters and know that women’s services like ours can be transformational in women’s lives. We hope to build support from the local community for Kairos."

About Kairos:

Kairos Women Working Together (Kairos) is a specialist organisation in Coventry run by women, for women for the past 26 years. We support and advocate for women who face multiple disadvantage, social exclusion, and are at risk of or subject to sexual exploitation. We empower women to increase their safety, stability, self-belief, and self-reliance, so they can build fulfilled lives free from violence, abuse, and exploitation.

At our women’s hub and in the community, we reach over 250 women every year through holistic, trauma-informed, open-ended support and advocacy provided 1-2-1 and in group settings. Through our wider advocacy and influencing work, we use our specialist knowledge and expertise, alongside the voices of women with lived experience, towards creating systems change to improve outcomes for all women.

Women report that with our support they feel safer and have developed greater self-belief. They’re more able to cope. Financial circumstances are better, and they are maintaining stable accommodation. Their family, peer, and intimate relationships have improved and they’ve built up positive support networks. They’ve broken free from the grip of perpetrators of abuse. Women tell us our support made all the difference in them addressing their substance use, being able to exit prostitution, or being able to keep their children in their care. Ultimately, we help women build fulfilled lives, free from violence, abuse, and sexual exploitation.

Specialist women's services such as Kairos are chronically underfunded and the sector is in desperate need of long term, sustainable funding if we are to continue to reach out to some of the most vulnerable women in our community, women who would otherwise fall through the cracks. We empower women to transform their lives. Our work is life changing and life saving.

Why Women?

While women are often less visible on the streets rough sleeping, they actually make up 60% of those who are homeless and in temporary accommodation. In the last 10 years, the number of women in England who are homeless has increased by 88%. Research undertaken by the charity HomelessLink identified: "Women are extremely vulnerable to experiencing homelessness. They occupy a difficult position in the labour market; are more likely to live in poverty and have lower levels of savings and higher levels of debt. Women are also more likely to hold caring responsibilities and are commonly the head of single households. This means women have additional financial pressures but less flexibility to increase hours of work, move accommodation or make other financial adjustments to prevent homelessness."