Association of Northern Empowered Women

Do you offer services for male victims?

We recognise that men can be victims of domestic abuse too and would like to be able to offer services for male victims. However, at this current time we do not have the resources to do so. This is something we hope to offer in the future.

In the meantime, locally: Safenet offer accommodation services for male victims. For other support Mankind can be contacted on 01823 334244 or here: https://www.mankind.org.uk/help-for-victims/

What about LGBTQ+ women? Or disabled women? Or women of faith? Or BAME women?

Anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse. All women who have experienced domestic abuse are welcome on our programmes and will benefit from them.

We recognise that being part of any minority group can mean that domestic abuse can present alonside further difficulties, barriers, challenges and discrimination and we are working to develop programmes that support women from a variety of intersectionalities and communities, devised and led by support workers who are part of those communities. Watch this space!

Why don't you run your own survivor programmes in your own facilities?

We are committed to collaborating, not competing with other agencies and to taking a holistic approach to clients. It is very unusual for domestic abuse not to lead to other problems such as homelessness, addiction or mental health problems so the women we seek to support are often already being supported by specialists around those issues. It's difficult walking into a new place, asking for support from new people, with new peers. By offering support in the places survivors are already familiar and comfortable, we are able to not only reach more survivors but focus on our own specialism- domestic abuse whilst other agencies focus on theirs, and we work together to help the whole person with a more rounded recovery.

My organisation's focus isn't domestic abuse, why would we want to buy in your services in a different field rather than simply refer our clients to outside agencies?

Good question. Most agencies tell us they're already supporting domestic abuse victims in large numbers and this is only increasing post-pandemic. If you offer any kind of support to women then statistically speaking you are already supporting domestic abuse victims whether you want to or not.

By buying in a specialist you're able to offer your clients a complete support package, the trauma your clients who have experienced DA will have faced is highly likely to impact their ability to work with you in the area you're supporting them in. By having your own in-house specialist you can ensure your client is getting the support that you want them to around this issue. How many times do you refer clients to outside agencies who don't make contact with them? Or who don't offer the service you want them to? Or who give clients conflicting advice to you? Or whose group runs at the same time as yours so your client can't attend both? Or have lost their funding so don't operate any more? Or even are really brilliant and do everything right but your client is too overwhelmed or nervous to go somewhere new and so they don't turn up?

By offering your own in-house support programme you maintain complete control of the service offered, you can make sure it meets your high standards and by asking Anew to deliver it on your behalf you can remain focussed on your core project.

How do I know that your group facilitation is high quality.

We have a sample Freedom Programme exercise video, which we will be uploading shortly. In this video our facilitator delivers a sample of the material from the Freedom Programme. Obviously, what we cannot show you in on- online sample video is the interaction with participants. However, at Anew we have an ‘open door policy' to our group work. Your female staff are welcome to attend our group sessions, as are any other support workers or professionals. The only exception to this is that we do not allow social workers to attend any of our programmes because survivors are often too fearful to speak freely in front of social workers.

We take students on placement in our organisation. Can they get involved in your group work programmes?

We are happy to facilitate student training and have experience mentoring students. If you have students on placement in your organisation they are very welcome to get involved in delivering group work programmes, and we will supervise them as they are given an opportunity to facilitate parts of some sessions. You can also book any of our seminars and training programmes to be delivered to students.