The Gift of Safety

 

Give The Gift of Safety: Support Survivors of Domestic Abuse This Winter

You can Support Survivors of Domestic Abuse This Winter with the most important gift of all—the Gift of Safety.

Gifts with labels stating safety, shelter and securityAt Nottingham Central Women’s Aid, we have launched a special campaign to raise vital funds for women and children fleeing domestic abuse. Your donation could provide them with safe housing, emotional support, and healing activities for both women and children who have witnessed or been impacted by domestic or sexual abuse.

Why the Gift of Safety Matters

Domestic abuse is a reality for countless women and children across the UK. Each year, thousands of families seek refuge from perpetrators who subject them to violence and coercive control, often leaving everything behind to find safety.

With your help, we can provide a secure, supportive environment where they can begin their journey to healing and recovery. Give The Gift of Safety: Support Survivors of Domestic Abuse This Winter.

This winter, while many are staying warm with loved ones, survivors of domestic abuse are working to rebuild their lives. By supporting the Gift of Safety campaign, you’ll be giving them more than just shelter—you’ll be offering hope, care, and the tools they need to create a safer future.

How Your Donation Helps

Your contribution will directly support life-saving services such as:
Safe Emergency Housing: Immediate refuge for women and children escaping violence and abuse.

Therapeutic Support for Women and Children: Healing activities and counseling to help children recover from trauma.

Practical Assistance: Guidance on legal matters, finances, and housing to empower survivors in rebuilding their lives.

Even a small donation can make a big difference:

£15 can provide emergency essentials for a woman and child in crisis

£45 can provide a night of safety in refuge accommodation

£100 can provide security items for a family resettling in their forever home

Why Support Nottingham Central Women’s Aid?

At Nottingham Central Women’s Aid, we’ve been providing crucial services to survivors of domestic abuse for many years. Our team includes dedicated specialist staff, volunteers and trustees, many of whom have lived experience of domestic abuse, making them experts by experience. They work tirelessly to offer empathetic and informed support to those who need it most.

We believe that every woman and child deserves to live free from fear and harm. The Gift of Safety Support Survivors of Domestic Abuse This Winter with the most important gift of all. Your donation to the Gift of Safety campaign will help us continue offering these vital services and extend a lifeline to more families this winter.

How You Can Get Involved

Supporting the Gift of Safety campaign is easy:

Donate online: Click the link to make a secure donation.

Share our campaign: Spread the word by sharing our posts on social media with the hashtag #GiftOfSafety.

Fundraise: Start a personal fundraising campaign to support our cause.

Give the Gift of Safety Today

Help us ensure that women and children can escape domestic abuse and find the support they need to build brighter, safer futures. Your generosity could be the turning point in someone’s life. This winter, give the Gift of Safety.

Please Donate now to make a difference.

 

 

 

Free domestic abuse intervention information session

Join our Online Domestic Abuse Intervention Information Session: Empowering Professionals to Make a Difference.

Recognising the need for informed and effective intervention. We are pleased to offer this free online: Domestic Abuse Intervention Information Session. 

We will give an introduction to our charity, information on the community sessions offer and how you can signpost or refer the women you are working with.

Whether you are in healthcare, social work, education, law enforcement, or any field that intersects with individuals impacted by domestic violence, this session will equip you with the knowledge and tools to signpost effectively and compassionately to local support and services.

Why Attend?

Our session will equip you with knowledge needed to signpost to support that include community based sessions involving a range of innovative approaches. These sessions are proven to make a real difference in the lives of survivors of domestic abuse.

Gain invaluable knowledge as well as the opportunity to find out more about our charity and the support that is available to survivors.

Session Details

August 20, 2024 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
The session will be held Online via Zoom.

Secure your spot today. It’s quick and easy, simply click here and go to eventbrite to register for the session.

Domestic abuse is a pervasive issue that requires a concerted effort from all sectors of society, and as professionals, we have a responsibility to be at the forefront of intervention and support. Attend our online Information Session, and take this vital step towards making a meaningful impact.

Together, let’s build a safer, more supportive environment for women and children affected by domestic abuse.

Our team are looking forward to your participation and to collectively advancing our efforts to combat domestic abuse.

For more information or have any queries about the event or support available, please contact us at Support@centralwomensaid.org or call on 03303551122.

Together, we can make a difference.

All sessions are free to attend and you can find more information available at https://centralwomensaid.org/about-us-services/community-programmes/

A Toast Worthy Moment

Helping families to rise and recover

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A toast worthy moment! Central Women’s Aid,  are on a roll and we can’t ‘dough’ much better than this, we are delighted to have been selected to receive a Warburtons foundation grant from the Eastwood Warburtons Hub . A Total of £20,000 towards our Chrysalis outreach project which will support our community work over the next 2 years.

The Chrysalis project  extended aims to increase physical safety, improve mental health and well-being and encourage stronger relationships with family for survivors of domestic abuse including women and their children.

We will do this through outreach support and engagement with whole families and not just individual members. As a result families will see improved physical health and wellbeing through being safe and living free from the fear of domestic abuse and violence.

Outreach support means that women will not have to retell their story and thus will avoid re-traumatisation and be able to focus on remaining safe, healing and recovery. Additionally, women who can’t access face to face support will be able to access support online and have the opportunity to begin to understand the patterns of abuse that they have been subjected to and begin to recover from the harm of domestic abuse.

Our Goals

Our goals are to keep women, children and young people safe from  harm and to increase resilience, recovery and coping strategies to rebuild lives following being subjected to domestic abuse and the associated traumatic life experiences.

Women’s aid England annual audit 2023 reports that of all women using domestic abuse services, 41.0% had mental health support needs, which increased to 50.2% of those in refuge. Research from a wide variety of studies suggests connecting with others and self-care as ways to improve mental and physical wellbeing. This project will provide a range of opportunities to create friendships, building peer support groups and networks .

Women and Children will build healthier and more resilient relationships with each other and their extended network as well as learn new skills and be able to recover from the impact of domestic abuse.

This will be achieved through group work and one-to-one sessions delivered by a support worker who will be employed to offer support to women accessing our community services and will complete weekly support sessions, advocate for women and ensure they are aware of their own rights and choices.

The project will launch in September 2024 and we will be hosting a family fun day to celebrate! So get your loafers on and get bready to break bread with us. 

Follow us on social media and sign up to our newsletter to stay connected. 

 

Emma is Taking the Leap to Freedom

Taking the leap to Freedom

On Saturday the 8th of June Emma will be completing a tandem skydive to raise funds and awareness of Nottingham Central Women’s Aid a small but impactful charity in Nottingham. You can donate quickly and easily through her just giving page JustGiving, https://www.justgiving.com/page/emma-simons-leaptofreedom 

“When women find the courage to leave an abusive relationship, they are taking a leap towards freedom. It is a brave and empowering act that deserves recognition and support. That’s why I am dedicating my skydive to raise awareness about the vital services provided by Central Women’s Aid.” – Emma

Nottingham Central women’s Aid is a small charity offering life saving services to women and children who have been impacted by Domestic or sexual violence. This can include coercive control and other types of psychological and emotional abuse. When women flee an abuser they often have to choose homelessness to survive their abuser. This means coming into a refuge and leaving their home and everything they know behind to start over a new life- to find their freedom. This leap is huge and often a long road to recovery and healing that can include legal battles, emotional and practical help needed and a need for permanent rehousing which can take years. Central women’s Aid offer emotional and practical support through a range of projects and services including emergency accommodation and community group sessions for women to help promote recovery.

National statistics

National Charity Women’s Aid England who oversee the ‘Routes to support’ online directory of Women’s support services, recorded 10,824 women and almost 13,000 children being accommodated in emergency refuge accommodation across England and Wales through 2022 – 2023. These numbers represent those families who made it to safety and support. such as that offered by Nottingham Central Women’s Aid. More information about free community sessions and their other services is available on their website https://centralwomensaid.org/about-us-services/

Year on year, more than 2 women every week are murdered in England and Wales and over 30% of all women worldwide are being subjected to violence and abuse during their lifetime.  Holding abusers accountable is crucial to creating a safe society for all and many women need to flee to safety to start the legal processes that can keep them safe or to start their lives over again and find freedom.

Making a donation

You can donate through JustGiving, https://www.justgiving.com/page/emma-simons-leaptofreedom  you can make a difference in the lives of these courageous women. Your contribution will directly support Central Women’s Aid in their mission to provide safety, resources, and empowerment to survivors of domestic abuse.

Donating is simple, fast, and secure. JustGiving ensures that your personal information is safe and will never be sold or used for unwanted emails. Your donation will be sent directly to the charity, making it the most efficient way to support this cause.

Join me on this incredible journey as we take a leap together – not only into the open sky but also towards a world where every woman can find freedom from abuse.

Together, let’s make a difference!

Thanks to National Lottery Players!

 

Big lottery funding for our small charity!

Nottingham Central Women’s Aid is continuing to help women and children Live Free from Fear thanks to Big Lottery funding of £430,297.64 which we will receive over the next 5 years to help the community.

We are thrilled to announce that we have been given a further grant from the Big Lottery which will be used to deliver services across Nottingham for families escaping and recovering from domestic abuse.

Free from the fear of domestic abuse

Our project ‘Free from fear continued’ will run from April 2024 through to 2028 and provide a wide range of support services including a bi-lingual support worker. Community outreach will be available for people who attend the survivor recovery programmes that we run weekly. The ‘Power of Change’, ‘Own My Life’ and ‘Freedom programme’ sessions help women to recognise and understand the abuse that they have been put through. Sessions are accessible to all women and offer the space needed to begin to recover from the trauma of living with an abusive partner or family member.

“The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK, awards grants to strengthen society and improve lives across the UK. Thanks to National Lottery players, it will distribute at least £4 billion by 2030, supporting activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable.”

This adds to grants by Children in Need and the Leather sellers who have given funding towards our core services and are helping us to reach more women and children in danger of abuse at the hands of family members.

When families live with domestic abuse they are fearful all the time and when they are able to reach out for help it is crucial that the response is appropriate and understanding, with support quickly put in place to keep them safe.

Women are most at risk of serious assault or death when they try to leave an abuser. If they manage to escape then the risk remains highest within the first 6 months after fleeing. According to the Femicide Census, 38% of women killed by their ex-partner from 2009 to 2018 were killed within the first month of separation and 89% in the first year. (Femicide Census, 2020)

Our Services

Our specialist domestic abuse services offer the means to escape and then the practical and emotional support women and children need to remain safe.

Families are often thrown into homelessness after leaving and our refuge offers basic but safe accommodation with care and support given by other women who understand.  This includes physical and mental health care, financial support, housing advice and a lot of listening and support to navigate the different legal and social systems and find solutions.

As a result of this funding, we will be recruiting some new members to the team so follow our social media and LinkedIn for news of the roles as they become available or sign up to our newsletter for information directly to you. The funding will see us increase our community engagement, outreach and therapeutic family support and we are really excited to have the opportunity to further develop our ‘positive outcomes’ consultation board run by survivors to actively engage our beneficiaries in developing the services.

Get Involved

We are also seeking more volunteers to develop our campaigns work, increase our audience and help us engage nationally with the wider sector work to promote the rights of women. Our aims are to improve life now and in the future by working to end violence against women and girls.

We also offer training to increase understanding and perceptions of domestic abuse and coercive control to improve responses to domestic abuse disclosures.

To access our services, request training or support our charity in any way then please contact Support@centralwomensaid.org or call us on 0115 9607943