Anti-abuse projects given extra funding

LOCAL AUTHORITIES in Yorkshire are sharing more than £1m in Government funding handed out to stop violence against women and girls.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced more than 40 projects across England and Wales which will share around £17m as she warned that the number of people experiencing domestic abuse was “still far too high”.

The funding has been awarded through the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Service Transformation Fund, which is designed to support earlier intervention and prevention so that fewer women reach crisis point.

Among the schemes being supported is a programme of group work and one-to-one support for young men in Hull aged 16 or 17 who are at risk of becoming abusers, which is getting £300,000.

North Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner is getting £150,000 for a project to provide specialist advocates for victims and survivors of sexual violence, including those trained in providing support for those with poor mental health or learning disabilities.

And £600,000 is going to a ‘prevention and early intervention’ project led by West Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner, working with female offenders who are victims of violence against women and girls.

In a speech yesterday to the Women’s Aid conference in Coventry, Ms Rudd said the proportion of women who have experienced domestic abuse in the last year is at its lowest since the survey began in 2004.

She said: “But, as you all well know, the number of people experiencing domestic abuse is still far too high.

“Despite record numbers of prosecutions and convictions, there are two million victims of domestic abuse every year in England and Wales.”