I kept walking. Outside I broke into a run. I didn't know where to go. I had no money and no way of getting any money but I wasn't going back home – I was terrified at what he might do. I ended up going to casualty. I had blood all over my face. They cleaned me up and found me a space in a refuge. I had nothing – only the clothes I was in."
Kate's story is not unique. Every three days a woman dies as the result of domestic violence. According to the most recent government figures, in one year around 20,000 women and their families become homeless as they escape abusive partners at home. Alone, homeless and vulnerable, women like Kate have no one to turn to.
He pushed me to the floor and started kicking me. I was terrified. I struggled to get up and then he hit me again.
This is where domestic violence charity Refuge steps in. It is the country's largest single provider of specialist accommodation and support to women and children suffering domestic violence, and, each year, it helps hundreds of women across the UK to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Refuge's support is crucial. When these women leave their partners, they also walk out of their homes. According to homelessness charity Shelter, 40% of all homeless women say domestic violence was a major contributor. It was found to be the "single most quoted reason for becoming homeless".
Every three days a woman is killed in a domestic violence incident
On average, on any one day, 7000 women and children are sheltering in a refuge. But once women have taken the decision to go to a refuge and seek help, a major problem for support workers is how to access affordable housing for these woman so that they have somewhere to go once they have moved on.
Refuge started life in south-west London, in 1971 and has grown into a network of refuges, mainly in the South-east, for 80,000 women and children. Its chief executive, Sandra Horley, has worked as a homelessness officer herself (see page 24). She and her team deal with both the physical scars that women and children carry and the emotional trauma that follows years of systematic abuse. Refuge provides a children's programme that helps kids come to terms with the violence they have witnessed in their homes.
Every minute the police are called to a domestic violence incident
Women can call Refuge's national 24-hour helpline for support or advice. Every hour the centre takes 30 calls from desperate women – and sadly, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The centre is only able to handle 25% of attempted calls, so the real number of women in need is much greater.
The helpline, however, gets no government funding, and relies purely on donors and fundraising. But you can help – with a donation, help in securing permanent housing for abused women and help to sustain their new tenancies.
Every hour 30 women call the Refuge helpline, but the centre can only handle a quarter of those calls
Jane Keeper, area support manager at Refuge says: "The housing problem in the South-east is such that women are kept waiting in refuges for up to two years before they can move into something more permanent. Although a person can stay in a refuge for as long as she likes until she feels she is able to move out, clearly two years is too long for both the woman and children."
She adds: "Everyone is different. Some women who come in may be owner-occupiers and their home may be their asset so they will need to know their rights. Others may have been living in rented homes with their partners. Refuge workers will look at all the housing options available and identify where would be a safe place for them to move to. It's vital for our staff to gather any information and evidence that can assist these women in their housing applications. We act as advocates."
4 in 10 callers are homeless or in urgent housing need
For those who are able to move on from the refuges, the next step is to rebuild their lives by claiming back the independence that was taken away from them. This is a traumatic time for many because it is often the first time they have been the main person in the house and had the financial control. Moving out is about empowerment, but sustaining that level of independence is a steep learning curve for many women.
Refuge recognises this and is setting up a network of community workers under the Supporting People programme who can offer advice for women who are living independently. The service is important as women coming out of a violent relationship are more likely to suffer from depression and are eight times more likely to commit suicide.
In any one day 7000 women and children are sheltering in refuges
For Jane Keeper, there's no doubt that we should all help these women get their lives back. She says: "At the end of the day, domestic violence involves broken bones, bruising and emotional abuse and it doesn't discriminate – any one of us can be on the receiving end.
How your money will help
Any donation is important, no matter how small. These are some of the services your money will go towards: £15,000 could fund the Refuge outreach programme to provide community-based support for women from minority ethnic groups £25,000 would pay for one helpline operator, one play worker for the children’s recreation scheme or the much-needed renovation of a safe house £100,000 would pay the workers in one safe house for one year £750,000 is the cost of running the National 24-hour Domestic Violence Helpline for one yearWhat I’d gone through was bad enough, But imagine being homeless and powerless and beaten ...
Refuge chief executive Sandra Horley OBE has the knack of drawing people out. Talking to her staff in the presence of a journalist, a stream of questions and smiles encourages them to drop the official script and speak frankly. In the interview itself, she starts by wanting to know all about her interviewer. With the looks of a comforting daytime-TV agony aunt, it’s easy to picture her eliciting the painful stories of the abused women who turn to Refuge in despair. As with all the best agony aunts, Horley has an authority drawn from first-hand experience. There’s her years “on the front line” for Refuge from 1983 to 1996, starting by managing the first overcrowded refuge in Chiswick then extending services to centres across London and the South-east. Her work involved admitting distressed new arrivals every day, mopping up blood and feeding battered victims through a straw. And those aren’t the only harrowing stories she has to tell. There’s another, from back in her native Canada. Told matter-of-factly and without bitterness, it’s the story of a 14-year-old made homeless after her parents’ divorce. Horley’s mother, working in low-skilled jobs and without a welfare safety net, only had enough money to support Sandra’s younger brother and sister. So the teenager worked her way through school, wrapping presents in a gift shop and living in a bed-sit. She likes to emphasise the positives in her experience: how the combination of work and study gave her an “outward focus”; how she developed a strong, adult-to-adult relationship with her mother. But it’s clear that the motivation to work with victims of domestic violence has its roots in this early experience of vulnerability. “What I’d gone through is bad enough. But imagine being homeless and powerless and beaten ...” she tails off, shaking her head. “My crisis was never as bad as the people we help here.” The resourcefulness and people-focus she developed as a teenager has stayed with her. At Refuge, rather than untying policy knots or managing services, her role is “raising public awareness”, and she’s been highly successful at it. Advertising and marketing campaigns have won several awards. She has wooed corporate donors, secured high-profile trustees such as Cherie Booth, and sought out celebrity benefactors including Yoko Ono and Diana, Princess of Wales. Overall, Horley has ensured Refuge punches above its weight as a £6m budget charity. But, as she likes to point out, £3m in housing benefit and £3m in donations is trivial in comparison with the multimillion-pound bill to the state from domestic violence fall-out. “In terms of cost and human misery, the problem is enormous. It affects the police, it’s about children going into care, the cost to employers, to the health service. Refuges can only do so much – it spills into health, housing and social work.” Horley has seen the effects she talks of from several angles. Her first job in the field was as a homelessness officer in Shrewsbury, a post she combined with post-graduate studies in sociology at the University of Birmingham. After graduating, she became manager of four womens’ refuges for the Haven Project in Wolverhampton in 1979. She then moved to London after meeting her photographer husband, working first as a housing advice worker in Brixton before joining Chiswick Family Rescue in 1983. She has been called as an expert witnesss on “battered woman syndrome” in 20 civil and criminal cases, from murder to divorce settlements. And because of the long-term effects of domestic violence on children, she is particularly proud of a counselling programme for children living in refuges. “Bricks and mortar are important, but so is employing child psychologists,” she says. “We’re in the middle of undertaking research on the impact of abuse – by asking the children directly.” The charity provides services in refuges owned and developed by several housing associations, with centres currently being built in Kent, Sussex and Cambridgeshire. In general, Horley describes relations as “very positive”, but concedes there are “some tensions around the management of the service”. For instance, she raises the question of male staff access to refuges, and the issue of confidentiality, scorning one registered social landlord for circulating a property list with full contact details of its refuges. Under the Supporting People regime, Refuge will work more closely with its partner RSLs, for instance by developing “floating support” schemes for vulnerable tenants. Horley’s predictions for the new arrangements are carefully measured: “It could represent a great opportunity to develop services and meet the needs of women who do not necessarily need a refuge. But there’s a lot of anxiety over the detail. And to get funding for schemes, we have to have them in the pipeline now, or match fund 50% of the cost. It’s a real blow, and we’ve been lobbying ministers about this.” Another item on her wish-list is the funding to stage more training courses for housing workers, social workers and other public sector staff. “In an ideal world, Refuge would provide training for housing association and local authority staff. But because of the funding situation, that diverts us from working with women who particularly need our support. We need a team of trainers to train staff in front-line departments.” Most of all, Refuge needs more support for its 24-hour National Domestic Violence Helpline, the “pivotal access point” for its services. A visit to its offices puts all the funding questions in sickening context. Helpline staff describe a woman and her four-year-old sleeping rough; a mother and toddler driving at night in distress but finding no welcome at a north London police station; dinosaur local authorities responding to re-housing requests with the words “intentionally homeless”. Horley stays silent. The stories speak for themselves.
What you can do
There are many ways to help Refuge’s work. You can:Donations so far
Every week for the duration of our appeal, we will be highlighting the sponsors who have donated funds. We would like to thank building contractor Willmott Dixon and housing management specialist Pinnacle for their support.Source
Housing Today
Postscript
If you would like to make a corporate donation, please call Housing Today editor, Denise Chevin on 020 7560 4149
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