£500k to tackle domestic violence

A project to support the increasing number of women affected by domestic violence in Coleraine has been awarded a major grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

Causeway Women’s Aid has been awarded a grant of 499,971 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme to run the Training and Peripetetic Outreach Support Project for women dealing with domestic violence in the Coleraine, Ballymoney and Moyle council areas.

The project, which expands on the services already run by the organisation, will involve a number of stages of support to help the women deal with their problems and regain their confidence and esteem.

The programme will involve one-to-one outreach support, personal development training, a domestic violence programme, and essential skills courses.

The organisation also plans to work with community associations to do domestic violence awareness and healthy relationships training with local community associations.

Management Coordinator Sharon Burnett explained that once the women have completed their journey through the programme they will become volunteers for other women dealing with domestic violence.

“The most recent figures from the PSNI from April to September ’09-’10 show there has been an increase in the number of incidents recorded in all the Coleraine council area,” said Sharon. “There were 460 incidents in Coleraine, an increase from 426 the previous year and a rise of 8%.

When we talk about domestic violence we are not just talking about physical injuries. They also going through emotional abuse and a lot of women say this is what stays with them for the rest of their lives.”

Sharon continued: “They can be called names, isolated from their family and friends, threatened, accused of adultery, told they are mad and are bad parents, have access to money removed, and told they are bad parents.”

Sharon said that the project’s outreach will be able to act very quickly and go out to meet women in a safe place to see what support they need.

“The women will have the option of doing two things,” she said. “The first is she may need emergency refuge support or support to go to court. The second is that she will be referred to this project.

“Women often arrive here believing they are good for nothing.

“The personal development training raises self esteem and confidence and there’s programmes such as My Life My Choices, and Journey to Freedom.

“Domestic violence training can be very difficult so women need to feel emotionally strong enough to sit down and look at what they have been through.

“They are potentially reliving what they went through and realising they were put through abuse they did not even recognise.

“Once they’ve come through this we give them the opportunity to see what they can do by taking part in courses such as English, Maths and IT. They have successes and qualifications under their belt and realise they are not stupid, but can achieve things.

“This is a place where women come in who have been through some tough times, we are helping them change their lives and build new hope for the future.

“We hope they will go on to become volunteers and help other women going through similar situations.”