HER CENTRE LIMITED
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Mission Statement
To engage and empower women to move away from abuse, and forward with their lives
About This Cause
Her Centre is a local women’s charity providing a holistic service to women who have experienced abuse or who face barriers and hardship. Based in, and covering Greenwich borough in London England, we work with over 1200 women a year through our: ● Independent Domestic Violence and Sexual Advocacy (IDSVA) service, ● Housing Advocate ● Support group and counselling, ● Children’s IDSVA post, ● Young Women’s IDSVA post, ● One Stop Shop drop in advice, ● Health Advocate ● Basic English and basic IT training, Parenting and Confidence building courses ● Events and celebrations. What We Do We work with women experiencing domestic or sexual violence, helping them to get safe and improve their lives. It is a complex area of support requiring a holistic view of a family’s situation, addressing the impact on children and often the risks of poverty and homelessness. We work to make a difference to all women who need us, without prejudice or judgement. Everybody is welcome, and we work through local community groups and our English classes to ensure we reach women less likely to know of our core work. We provided support to 856 women experiencing abuse and providing workshops and training to 879 in 2022/23. We provide women with support with - emergency situations requiring crisis intervention, safety planning, legal services and temporary housing, - training courses to improve English, learn basic IT skills and build confidence, - emotional support through peer-led group support and individual trauma counselling. Some of our clients find us through the local advice hub which provides advice on benefits, housing issues and immigration. We are a key partner to the hub and co-founded this with a range of grants. The hub refers clients to our drop-in session next door to discuss issues of domestic violence in a confidential and safe environment. We have been running for 26 years and have been funded to be the local domestic violence advocacy provider by Greenwich council for 12 years, with a further 4-year contract secured from March 23. We need additional funding for core costs to continue our work and help us to stay resilient . Our performance for 2022-23 shows the increasing demand for our support. Women engaged by IDSVA services 856 Referrals including self-referrals (All referrals contacted at least 3 times unless they refuse service) 1116 Attendees at Training and Events 879 Took up Group or One to One Counselling 103 Women engaged for support addressing Sexual Abuse 43 Young women supported 83 We measure our impact through the numbers of women we engage and through the feedback our clients give us when they leave our service. We also carry out phone surveys 6 months after leaving the service to see if the women still feel able to stay safe and how good they found the support. These give us a good level of qualitative information on the outcomes we make. Our exit survey for the six months from December 21 to May 22 found: Women confident can stay safe 93% Women know where to get support if needed in future 95% Women had a reduction in risk 89% Women feel more in control 88% Our last phone survey in December 2022 shows after 6 months of leaving the service, over 69% feel safer and over 71% know how to access services should they need them in future. This is a drop in previous years and reflect both the problems with poor temporary housing and with women feeling more anxious and vulnerable, often due to additional challenges. This is in line with the increase in women who are suffering from long term mental health problems that we are working with, who are more likely to return to an abusive partner or drift into a relationship with a new abuser due to lack of confidence and ongoing mental ill health affecting their judgement. Cost of living and the risks of poverty are also major factors in why women feel they can’t leave or have to return. Need for the Service Though we engaged over 800 women experiencing abuse, Greenwich has seen an increase since Covid in women seeking help. In 2019/20 there were 568 high risk referrals to the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference chaired by the police. By 21/22 there were 740, a 30% increase. Equally Her Centre had 970 referrals in 2019/20 and 1116 in 22/23, a 15% increase that we have been running with since Covid ended. Domestic and sexual violence is a long way from ended, and more complex cases are now being referred for support more regularly, who need more time to stay engaged Equality and Diversity Her Centre works in a mixed area with both local wealth and pockets of deprivation. The women who approach us are from a range of backgrounds, but all are financially challenged, and some have no access to any funding due to their immigration status, and are living on the charity of friends. Our drop-in has a wider reach than the referrals mainly from police and social services as many women are afraid of the repercussions if they report the abuse to either service. We see more refugee and immigrant women and more women with disabilities including mental ill health at our drop-in. We have now expanded drop-in to 3 other locations across the borough to ensure we reach more women, especially through our drop-in based in Thamesmead, with a high level of Black African families. Greenwich also has the largest Nepalese community in Britain, and we work with local groups to ensure they take up our free English classes and so learn about our other services. We also work with the local LBGT agency to ensure women understand we will also support those in lesbian relationships, and with local churches, temples and mosques to promote our women’s training. Our recent event on women with disabilities leaving abuse connected with specialist women’s services such as Stay Safe East and the Sign Health domestic abuse advocacy, as well as more generic disability charities both local and national. We are currently setting up a number of volunteer run women’s group from specific communities where we see lower engagement, such as Tamil, Syrian and Vietnamese. We already have good links to Nepalese, Chinese, Afghani and Somali groups locally. Our Afghani Advocate and our Somali Board member help us retain these community links.