Abuse recovery help for victims

AN Angus group is helping young women and children who are in abusive relationships.

The Limitless Project provides advice and assistance on domestic abuse to women aged between 13 and 25 regardless if they are still with their partner or not.

The project, run by Angus Women’s Aid, offers up a 13-stage recovery plan based on the female’s particular needs and can be extended if required.

Young women have been involved in the development of the project and it was created after a number of teenage girls contacted the charity wanting to talk about abuse in their own relationships.

Back in 2013, Angus Women’s Aid replicated the 2009 NSPCC survey exploring abuse in young people’s relationships.

The group took to the street and engaged with 109 people aged between 12 and 18 from Angus.

The study revealed 18% of young people had reported physical abuse in their own intimate relationships, 24% reported emotional abuse and 18% reported sexual abuse.

These figures led to Angus

Women’s Aid delivering workshops focusing on healthy relationships in schools and community settings with students in S4-S6.

Following the workshops, the group found an increase of young women aged 14-18 engaging with the service due to domestic abuse and coercive control in their own intimate relationships.

This led the group to develop the Limitless Project.

One employee said the service is crucial as it can help to mitigate the long-term impact of domestic abuse and coercive control and help improve outcomes across health and wellbeing, education, development and relationships.

A high level of normalisation of abuse, violence and coercive control amongst young people’s intimate relationships has been found throughout the launch.

The Limitless Project provides information sessions, group work and workshops throughout Angus, focusing on healthy relationships, including domestic abuse, coercive control, consent, image sharing and the use of pornography.

One woman, 17, said: “Any time I go anywhere and have to push myself, go to the shops or whatever, I always think to myself ‘What would ***** say?’.

“That gives me the strength to get on with what I need to do and it doesn’t matter how bad I am feeling or how anxious I am.”

A 14-year-old said: “This has been a huge help in my life and it was a relief to have someone I could talk to and not someone like a teacher. It means a lot.”

Anne Robertson Brown, executive director of Angus Women’s Aid, said: “Last year, we had 121 referrals in Angus.

“We as a society still victimblame consistently so girls are getting very mixed messages from programmes like Love Island and from social media.

“Often, young women don’t want anybody to know.”

Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline is available 24 hours a day for anyone, of any gender or sexuality, who wants to talk. Call free on 0800 027 1234 or email and web chat at sdafmh.org.uk

The Limitless Project offers advice and support to young women who have endured physical, emotional and sexual abuse from their partners.