The U-Turn website is currently under re-construction but should be operational very soon; this is a very brief introduction to who we are.
The U-Turn Project was set up in February 2004 , offering innovative support, information and practical intervention to hard-to-reach and marginalised women who have been trapped in a cycle of prostitution, drug addiction, physical abuse and homelessness from a young age. U-Turn’s first women’s centre opened in Bethnal Green, East London, in June 2006 and provides a safe, fully staffed building where the women can address health, social and housing needs as well as find pragmatic routes out of their cycles of abuse and poverty and they can move on to independent living.
Through night-time outreach and our daytime women’s centre, and in conjunction with sexual health, drug treatment and housing agencies as well as psychiatric counsellors, we support the women helping them make positive choices and to take control of their lives.
From 15th July 2008 a photographic exhibition taken by the women of U-Turn will be on display for a month at Baltic Restaurant, SE1. www.changethepicture.org.uk
This is the culmination of an eight-month project where some of London’s most vulnerable women learnt photographic skills through a series of workshops and meetings. They had never before had the opportunity to speak out safely, but now they have catalogued their lives in a series of hard-hitting images.
Change the Picture a partnership between Photovoice and U-Turn, has given these women the chance to raise awareness of the ‘unspoken’ topic of prostitution, homelessness and abuse and the difficulties they face in everyday life. U-Turn is looking to introduce more projects like this one through the year.
The award-winning documentary maker and patron of U-Turn, Nick Broomfield says “It’s shocking to think that helping homeless prostitutes isn’t on the Government’s agenda…these women are among the most marginalised and hard to reach in society.”
Contact: U-Turn Women’s Centre - 020 7739 2950
Project Director - Rio Vella 07980 548532 or Project Manager Jacqui Vennard 07773 011 356
Press / Marketing and Friends Programme - Emma Hall 07956 307 382
or email on emma@uturnproject.co.uk / rvella@uturnproject.co.uk