Who is Women's Aid?

Founded in 1974 out of the iconic women’s movements of the time, Women’s Aid, or the National Women’s Aid Foundation as it was then, brought together almost 40 independent refugee services across the UK for the first time. 

Now, with 180 organisations providing nearly 300 services, Women’s Aid provides shelter for women and children escaping abusive environments. It has successfully campaigned on important issues for the advancement of women and indeed society as a whole, such as making coercive and controlling behaviour an offence and making Relationships and Sex Education mandatory in schools from 2020. 

 

The challenge

Our work with Women’s Aid presented a number of novel challenges, unique to them as a client: 

  • The need for complete data security, confidentiality, and trust to protect individuals and their families
  • Creation of anonymous interpreter bookings with anonymised locations
  • The need for specialist training and upskilling for linguists for sensitive subject matters such as domestic violence 
  • A requirement for an entirely female linguist base

Arguably one of the major challenges in our work with Women’s Aid was the need for a significant degree of understanding and trust as well as becoming responsible in part for the protection of vulnerable women and children escaping abuse. 

Benefits at a glance
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24/7 access to linguist, 365 days a year

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Clear departmental audit trails

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Reliable language services partner for more than a decade

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Input in the training of client linguistic team

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Dedicated linguist taskforce

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Secure, bespoke service

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Siloed Wordskii accounts for all relevant Women’s Aid staff

 

How Word360 helped

In response to Women’s Aid’s need for security and sensitivity, we composed a bespoke language service to support them. 

We devised an anonymised booking system for Women’s Aid, allowing them to access our linguists without revealing any information about the identities or whereabouts of the people they help. 

In addition, all necessary data held by us with regards to Women’s Aid is protected under our ISO 27001 data security accreditation as well as our commitment to complete data security for all of our clients. All staff at Word360 also undergo rigorous data protection training every 6 months. 

Word360 linguists are subject to advanced DBS checks and NDAs as standard, and are therefore vetted and individually bound to the security of our clients’ information. 

Staff at Women’s Aid have access to siloed user accounts in our Wordskii booking system, meaning that only they as individuals can see information regarding their bookings. This prevents sensitive information from one member of their team transferring to another without intention. 

We have a dedicated task force of linguists who work with Women’s Aid, and twice a year, all of them undergo specialist training for the account, to ensure that standards are maintained consistently. 

 

 

The Results

In Word360, Women’s Aid has found a reliable, secure language services partner, on whom they have been able to depend for more than a decade. They have their own dedicated, and specifically trained task force of linguists who are available whenever, and wherever they need. 

These interpreters also receive training input from Women’s Aid themselves, who thereby are able to directly ensure that the linguists they use are equipped for the relevant tasks. 

In that time, there have been zero security breaches of sensitive information of any kind, and we continue to take a collaborative and considerate approach to our work with Women’s Aid. 

Download the full case study

Read how we composed a bespoke language service to support Women's Aid.

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