To commemorate and have a good time the 16 Days of Activism in opposition to Gender-Primarily based Violence, Ellen Miller, Interim CEO of Refuge, writes an unique open letter for GLAMOUR, calling on the federal government to put money into community-based home abuse help providers and to reform policing.
Learn her open letter right here:
It’s the 16 Days of Activism in opposition to Gender-Primarily based Violence, which presents an ideal alternative to have open discussions in regards to the motion wanted to beat violence in opposition to ladies and women (VAWG). Whereas some could consider that eradicating VAWG is unattainable, right here at Refuge we firmly consider that we will obtain a world the place ladies are protected from abuse and concern, if society unites and if tangible motion is taken. We’ve seen optimistic progress over the previous few years, with the introduction of the Home Abuse Act (2021), and the newer On-line Security Act (2023), however there’s nonetheless much more change wanted.
This yr, the theme of 16 Days of Activism is ‘UNITE! Make investments to stop violence in opposition to ladies and women’, which calls on governments the world over to share how they’re investing to guard.
It’s no secret that, traditionally, home abuse help has been chronically underfunded in England and Wales, with weak commitments from the Authorities to offer long-term, sustainable funding that meets demand. We now have seen some funding commitments lately, reminiscent of these outlined within the Home Abuse Act – which launched a statutory responsibility on native authorities to fee accommodation-based providers – however there are important areas of help which aren’t getting the money injection they want.
Group-based home abuse providers, run by ladies’s charities, present important help to survivors of home abuse – each ladies and their kids – who’re unable, or don’t want, to flee their properties. They’re there to help and empower ladies on each a brief and long-term foundation and may be accessed at any levels of the journey to security. Analysis performed by Refuge earlier this yr confirmed that 95% of the survivors we help entry community-based providers, and in only one yr, the variety of new shoppers supported by Refuge’s community-based providers elevated by 10%. Regardless of the clear rising demand for these providers, they proceed to be chronically underfunded, with greater than 4 in 5 of Refuge’s frontline workers surveyed seeing their service being impacted by inadequate funding.
This is the reason, with a coalition of companion organisations, Refuge is urging the federal government to offer sustainable funding of not less than £238 million within the upcoming Victims and Prisoners Invoice, so extra survivors may be given the important help they want. We’ve seen the undeniably optimistic influence of those providers at Refuge, with 97% of providers customers between April 2021 and March 2022 saying they felt safer after utilizing them. All survivors have the appropriate to really feel protected and to make sure that we want safe funding.
16 Days of Activism is a vital time for spreading consciousness of the challenges ladies and women face, and campaigning for optimistic change. The final yr has clearly demonstrated that there are main points with policing in England, which is having a profound influence on survivors of home abuse. We’ve seen report after report a few misogynistic tradition inside police forces and deeply disturbing headlines about police-perpetrated crimes in opposition to ladies and women. This has left ladies’s belief within the police at an all-time low. Just one in 5 survivors that Refuge help report abuse to the police, over fears of not being believed, or fears that those that are supposed to shield them could also be perpetrators themselves.
