It’s been an incredibly busy year

Lucy’s Update

Welcome to our Winter 2024 edition.

As the year draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on the events that have shaped our lives over the past twelve months. It’s been an incredibly busy year, filled with both challenges and triumphs.

This year has been nothing short of eventful! We’ve celebrated successes, embraced new opportunities, and navigated through challenges, but with each experience it has provided another stepping stone forward in our journey to break the cycle of domestic abuse.

Highlights of our year:

• J9 Domestic Abuse Initiative
• Working with private clients
• Hosting our Community Advocate Awards
• Attending various events most recently the Futures Together launch, Essex Community
• Foundation Symposium & SETDAB Conference.
• Visiting and accrediting J9 Safe Spaces
• Appointing Youth Ambassadors
• Working with our Survivor and Insight Network to develop factsheets
• Delivering youth hubs
• Launch of our Turning the Tide Programme with DWP

We continue our commitment to break the cycle of domestic abuse through engagement, empowerment and educating communities and workforces to recognise the early indicators of domestic abuse, respond effectively and create safe spaces for adults or children affected to reach out at the earliest point.

The latest data from the Office of National Statistics has been released and the Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that approximately 2.3 million individuals aged 16 and over in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse, in the year ending March 2024.

The statistics continue to be disheartening, however I use them to remind me why we do what we do and to inspire others to take action and invest more in awareness, prevention and early intervention. Domestic abuse is a global societal issue, it does not discriminate, affecting people irrelevant of their age, gender, race, religion, and socio-economic background, so we all have a role to play.

As we move into the new year, we are filled with hope and determination. Our goals are to continue supporting each other, our community, and all those we come into contact with to make a positive impact.

Thank you to our existing supporters and new connections, we hope you manage to take a well earned break with loved ones over this seasonal period and we look forward to seeing you in 2025!

Christmas Resources

Christmas can be a very difficult and stressful time of year for victims of domestic abuse and their families. I have previously shared a blog on Domestic Abuse and Christmas which includes some guidance around support and safety planning. Please read and share this with your network so that we can help raise awareness and focus on prevention and early intervention.

We have also created a short resource which can be downloaded below called ‘Redesigning Christmas after Domestic Abuse’ this forms part of our education and empowerment programme, ‘Turning the Tide’ written and developed by Alpha Vesta alongside our Survivor and Insight Network.

The ‘Turning the Tide’ programme is for those who have experienced domestic abuse at some point during their childhood or adulthood and are struggling to make sense of their experience and move forward to a life of freedom and independence. It is not suitable for those still living within an abusive relationship but has been designed for those that have escaped an abusive relationship but struggling to move forward with their lives. This resource aims to provide some tools and activities to help navigate the festive season.

Download the Turning Tide Christmas Handbook

J9 Initiative Update

Our J9 model for raising awareness and creating accredited Safe Spaces is now being funded through a number of different avenues across the county, including Community Safety Partnerships, SETDAB, OPFCC Community Safety Grant and Essex County Council. This has led to the meet the demand of providing private J9 training in addition to the three monthly sessions delivered online.

We are pleased to announce that Basildon Council are the first council office to meet two thirds of trained staff to become an accredited Safe Space. Congratulations to both the Buffy Bus team and staff at Rose Villa Surgery that have also recently become a J9 accredited Safe Space.

If you would like support to create your J9 Essex Safe Space, please do reach out to us to discuss this further via our email 

New!

Support Service Directory 2025

Our Regional and National Support Services Directory has been redesigned and updated. This continues to be available on our website but if you cannot wait please use the download button provided.

The Directory has been created in collaboration with our Survivor and Insight Network who often find different services confusing to understand, including Children’s Services and Mental Health support as two examples. The aim of this guide is not to just provide a list of numbers but to include further information that explains what they do, where they do them and what they can provide.

The Directory also dovetails into our portfolio of ‘Community and Workplace Training’ where the complexities and impact of domestic abuse are explored. We believe it is important to include information about vital support services that can help with areas covered by Alpha Vesta’s Big 12.

Download

Training & Consultancy Services

Please review our newly updated public training catalogue to explore our current offering and book to attend any of our sessions via the below link: Alpha Vesta CIC Events – 11 Upcoming Activities and Tickets | Eventbrite

Long-term Impact Feedback Survey

It is important for us to continue to develop robust training which is meaningful to people from a variety of different sectors and communities. We are very grateful to all of you that take the time to complete the short questionnaire that is shared after each of our sessions.

However, it is also important to us to understand the long lasting impact of our training and how this learning is being used within the workplace and community. Therefore, for those that have completed the training within the last 6 months please can we ask you to complete this short survey link: https://alphavesta.com/feedback-survey/