Addressing the demand for safe and secure homes for at-risk women in the UK, the Women in Safe Homes fund was chosen by Sustainable Investment Awards judges as the winner of this year's Social fund of the year in the EMEA region.

Launched in 2020, the gender-lens social impact investment fund aims to create safe and secure homes for women experiencing or at risk of homelessness, many of whom, it says, have escaped domestic abuse

It has attracted 20 impact investors and raised over £29 million ($39 million), including Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation, Big Society Capital, Barrow Cadbury Trust and Comic Relief. It works alongside its charity housing partners to select suitable properties before refurbishing them to an appropriate standard before leasing them to the charities to home vulnerable women and their children.

During the past year, the fund provided safe homes for 720 women and their children and deployed 100% of the capital raised, hitting its targets of acquiring 122 properties over its lifetime.