Sistah Space
Campaigning to transform domestic violence support for African heritage women and girls
Ten years ago Valerie Forde and her 1-year-old daughter were murdered by her ex-partner. In the months prior to her death, Valerie had been to Stoke Newington police station to report her fears about her ex-partner and his threats.
Sistah Space was founded in memory of Valerie, to demand that African heritage women and girls are given the support they need when they experience domestic abuse. Her murder exposed the knowledge gap that the police have when it comes to the black community and supporting women from our community facing domestic violence.
That’s why Sistah Space provides culturally competent support, campaigns for change in the UK, and provides resources to survivors across the UK, tackling the intersectionality of racism and gender-based violence.
Over 50,000 people across the UK are supporting Sistah Space’s vital work. Sign up to join them.
In 2025, Sistah Space launched the Hidden in Plain Sight report revealing:
- 76% wanted to report but felt unable to for fear of being believed or being stereotyped
- 97% of Black women survivors do not feel confident that reporting abuse would lead to fair and supportive treatment from authorities.
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Sistah Space are calling for Valerie's Law - a law that calls for police to have mandatory cultural competency training. Ensuring police understand things like how black skin bruises differently, how threats can be communicated differently, understanding stereotyping and unconscious bias towards black people and recognising historic institutional racism, which may cause distrust of the police.
Breakthrough has been backing Sistah Space through our 2025 Accelerator - we’ve supported them to hold a Parliamentarian event.