Domestic abuse support
Domestic abuse support
Author
Introduction
Over 100 phone calls about domestic abuse are received every hour by the police in England and Wales. Many more cases go unreported. Women who experience domestic abuse require specialist trauma-sensitive support to overcome their experiences, which is not always readily available.
2022 Award
Sudarshan Bhuhi (CF 2016) is the founder of Aanchal Women's Aid, a domestic abuse charity. During the Covid-19 lockdown, they received a rise in uptake of their services and found that the sessions they offered were not sufficient to support women experiencing serious trauma. Supported by one of our Covid-19 Action Funds, they developed an online Trauma Release Therapy Programme for London-based survivors, which resulted in a roundtable event with the Metropolitan Police, allowing participants to address institutional barriers they had faced to receiving the support they needed. This programme prompted nationwide interest, which the charity now wants to meet.
Sudarshan has been awarded one of our Activate grants to pilot this online programme for 24 months, to reach and support a wider group of domestic abuse survivors around the country. The funding will allow Sudarshan and colleagues to deliver 96 three-hour therapeutic sessions for 180 participants, offering them trauma-informed sensitive therapies to help release them from past and current trauma. It will also enable Sudarshan to run eight online group events, creating a space for survivors to share experiences and learnings with each other and to build a community of support. Finally, it will enable Sudarshan to deliver eight online roundtable events, offering survivors a platform to share their experiences and recommendations for change in sector practice with professionals, practitioners and policymakers in this space.
Sudarshan hopes that this will lead to improved support for domestic abuse survivors and empower them to influence policy and practice in the sector.
Sudarshan’s Fellowship explored ways to develop policing infrastructure to tackle domestic abuse.
2022 Award
Sudarshan Bhuhi (CF 2016) is the founder of Aanchal Women's Aid, a domestic abuse charity. During the Covid-19 lockdown, they received a rise in uptake of their services and found that the sessions they offered were not sufficient to support women experiencing serious trauma. Supported by one of our Covid-19 Action Funds, they developed an online Trauma Release Therapy Programme for London-based survivors, which resulted in a roundtable event with the Metropolitan Police, allowing participants to address institutional barriers they had faced to receiving the support they needed. This programme prompted nationwide interest, which the charity now wants to meet.
Sudarshan has been awarded one of our Activate grants to pilot this online programme for 24 months, to reach and support a wider group of domestic abuse survivors around the country. The funding will allow Sudarshan and colleagues to deliver 96 three-hour therapeutic sessions for 180 participants, offering them trauma-informed sensitive therapies to help release them from past and current trauma. It will also enable Sudarshan to run eight online group events, creating a space for survivors to share experiences and learnings with each other and to build a community of support. Finally, it will enable Sudarshan to deliver eight online roundtable events, offering survivors a platform to share their experiences and recommendations for change in sector practice with professionals, practitioners and policymakers in this space.
Sudarshan hopes that this will lead to improved support for domestic abuse survivors and empower them to influence policy and practice in the sector.
Sudarshan’s Fellowship explored ways to develop policing infrastructure to tackle domestic abuse.