Twelve charities will receive a share of £15m in funding to help ensure support for the most vulnerable women and girls can continue during the coronavirus pandemic, the government has said.
The money is being distributed from the latest round of the Tampon Tax Fund, which uses money generated from the VAT on sanitary products.
Projects that help victims of domestic abuse, work with people with eating disorders and provide mentoring for disadvantaged young women are among those to receive grants of more than £1m each over the next two years, according to a statement from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
The money will also be used to make grants to smaller organisations.
Recipients will be able to use part of their funding to improve the sustainability of their organisations.
Ovarian Cancer Action, Comic Relief and Women in Prison are among those receiving grants.
Women in Prison has been given £1m towards its The Creating Community Connections Project.
It will link women in prison with a network of local women’s centres, help address root causes of offending, improve outcomes on release and intercept cycles of trauma, disadvantage and abuse.
Comic Relief will distribute more than £1.2m in grants of between £40,000 and £250,000 to organisations led by BAME women for BAME women, to help tackle violence against women and girls in all four nations of the UK.
Baroness Barran, the minister for civil society, said: “Vulnerable women and girls need our support more than ever in this difficult year, and these grants will help keep vital services going.
“From supporting victims of domestic abuse to those suffering from mental health problems, this funding will help to directly tackle some of the most serious issues facing women and girls today.”