If the needs and experiences of women and children, rather than the agencies involved, are to drive inter-agency work, a basic requirement is the creation of alliances between women's organizations and feminists in other agencies. Such coalitions are themselves powerful, but they are not based on conventional sources of power, but rather on a common framework and commitment to meeting the needs of women. It is not an accident that the inter-agency initiatives where some form of leadership has been possible for women's organizations are the ones where the "f" word (feminism) continues to be used unashamedly. Unless power (the "p" word) is explicitly addressed, leadership in inter-agency groupings will follow traditional lines; small women's organizations whose funding and standing in the community is fragile cannot alone create change in large hierarchical organizations. Where strong networks of feminists have been forged, a different agenda and style of working is more likely to emerge. This is both because the impetus for "working together" often begins in women's organizations and because pre-existing feminist networking between and within agencies provides a strong membership base for the initiative. The most effective model of inter-agency work begins from developing alliances between feminists in different locations, and which takes as its starting point a feminist perspective on why violence against women occurs and what will be required to end it. As an example of this model, this chapter presents the goals and standards of practice of the London Coordinating Committee to End Woman Abuse. 9 references