Abuse charity dealing with record demand
NEW FIGURES released by Jewish Women’s Aid show continuing high demand for its support during the pandemic.
JWA’s domestic abuse and therapeutic support teams assisted 546 women and girls in 2021. In September, it worked with 175 women, the most in a month in its history.
The charity made 18 referrals to statutory authorities of women and children in high risk situations —including risk of serious harm or death of a woman and actual or potential neglect and abuse of a child.
Services offered included counselling, children’s therapy, safety planning, risk reduction, emotional support, legal options, benefits and financial advice.
JWA’s parental guidance counsellor supported 26 women, specifically with help in managing their relationship with their children, who had been traumatised by abuse.
It also provided 2,890 counselling sessions to 126 women and girls, empowering them to make their own decisions about how to move forward.
Its three children’s therapists delivered 392 one-to-one sessions to 31 children, predominantly via video. The weekly sessions are considered crucial to their recovery process.
Fourteen women were accompanied to court for moral and practical
Every day at least one woman contacts us for help with abuse
support through its McKenzie Friend programme.
In addition, its domestic abuse support team helped secure nine legal orders, including non-molestation orders against an abuser.
JWA’s schools programme saw staff and facilitators deliver 132 age appropriate workshops and assemblies to 3,255 secondary age pupils.
There were also sessions for university students and young professionals.
A community toolkit featuring a wide range of educational resources formed part of its annual awareness raising Shabbat, which attracted participation by dozens of communities.
Reflecting on “another challenging year”, CEO Naomi Dickson said: “Every day that that our helpline and webchat are open, at least one woman contacts us for help with domestic abuse or sexual violence — or both.
“Our frontline team continues to meet the demand for our services and we will be expanding our prevention work this year to ramp up our focus on culture change across our community.”