The Joanna Project is a small charity inspired by the Christian ideal that every person is a child of God and inherently loved. With this ideal in mind, the Project undertakes to support a challenging client group: women, trapped by life-controlling addictions, often involved in sex work on the streets of Holbeck in Leeds, with all the exploitation and danger that involves. These women are invariably victims, with traumatic childhoods of neglect and abuse, many of them without a safe and permanent home, many of them graduates of our failing ‘care system’.
Trustee for the Charity and Friend of the Rotary Club of Roundhay Lana Northey came to tell us of the support the Joanna Project offers. But first she vividly described the client group. Heroin addiction has offered some an escape from the terrors of post traumatic stress disorder, but at terrible cost. She likened the grip of heroin addiction to having a plastic bag over your head and being willing to do anything to get air. Then when coming off the drugs, the oppressive memories of past trauma return. It’s so hard to break the cycle without massive support. Lana referenced the Humpty Dumpty methodology, noting that for some, it seems that all the king’s horses and all the king’ men will not be able to put them back together again. She asked us rhetorically: who’s going to pick up and hold the broken pieces?
The answer is the Joanna Project, with its watchwords ‘hope, love and dignity’. Hope – means believing in the potential for change in each of the women they support. Love –means offering unconditional support and acceptance. Dignity – means respecting each individual’s inherent worth and providing a safe space where they can feel valued and respected.
Lana has a background in local authority adult social care. She began volunteering for the project eleven years ago, and is now a trustee. Her first experience was outreach work: going out in a van to where the women were working on the streets, offering them a seat in the van, hot drinks and snacks, hats, gloves, free condoms and personal safety alarms, and, much appreciated, little presents at Christmas and Easter.
Through evening outreach, volunteers point the women in the direction of services offering day time support, and if the women are reluctant to talk to the police about violent perpetrators, they are encouraged to give descriptions of abusers which can then be circulated amongst other women, and with support, to the police either anonymously or by name. The Charity sees its role as acting like a good sister or friend, and during the day offers one to one support including accompanying women to hospital appointments or addiction services or to court, or visiting in prison. When possible they offer help with moving to new accommodation, and on one recent occasion they have even helped with dog walking to support a woman who was very unwell to avoid a relapse.
Then there is Joanna House, a building leased to the charity by the Council with a grant for the rent. From the outside an anonymous breize block but inside like a welcoming home, not at all institutional. Here there are facilities for washing clothes, cooking, having a bath or shower. Outside is a lovely garden made by volunteer ‘garden angels’. Touchingly it includes memorial stones for those former users who have died.
Although it is not residential, users are able to use the address for receiving communications and visits from officialdom, and have the use of computers. There are regular activities in the house such as communal meals, baking, and crafts. Women are encouraged to write poems, which helps to process their trauma.
Lana described her charity as ‘really small but passionate, with big elbows’, that is, in all the necessary partnerships with agencies in Leeds enabling them to advocate for the women. They have a small staff of 8 women, a director and a fundraiser.
Income is a struggle for the charity, which has recently lost two substantial grants. Regular donations are made by churches and individuals. Obviously more donations would be a great help.
Lana acknowledged that many struggle to overcome their addictions, but there are successes that make the effort worthwhile. Some of those helped achieve stable lives away from addiction and sex work, yet still return to visit Joanna House. One is now herself a volunteer outreach worker going out on the van.
The club was privileged to hear from Lana Northey, and we applaud her dedication to service above self. For more information, visit