Southwest Women’s Spark Project
Southwest Women’s Spark Project aims to prevent women with multiple disadvantages, being affected by violence and abuse; ultimately achieving a better-quality of life.
We were delighted to announce in November 2021 that we were successful in securing almost £900,000 in funding from the Tampon Tax Fund to deliver a large partnership project that aims to prevent women with multiple disadvantages being affected by domestic violence and abuse.
The project, known as the Southwest Women’s Spark Project, is being delivered across the counties of Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. It involves a unique partnership of 7 organisations including the Women’s Centre Cornwall, Exeter CoLab, the NSPCC, The Zone, Plymouth City Council, BCHA and the Eddystone Trust.
The Southwest Women’s Spark Project aims to prevent women with multiple disadvantages being affected by violence and abuse; ultimately achieving a better-quality of life. This will be accomplished through 24/7 support by delivering a wrap-around, outreach programme incorporating trauma-informed Assertive Outreach Practitioners, fast-track access to women-only supported accommodation, practical and therapeutic support, and a violence prevention programme in schools.
The project is responding to a significant need in local communities as a result of a rise in domestic abuse – this attributed in part to the pandemic and home -working which has denied many victims access to safe spaces. Sexual violence has increased; recorded rapes have doubled. Women’s homelessness, street work and ‘survival sex’ has escalated: some women reporting it as a method of ‘self-harm’[1].
Collective research by the partners demonstrates that the biggest needs to be addressed across the South West are:
(1) Out of hours support
(2) Lack of women-only accommodation including emergency and safe/sustainable, and
(3) A consistent trauma-informed response.
Areas of high deprivation, social isolation and high numbers of fragmented/dysfunctional families can be found in all three counties. Cornwall is the poorest region in Northern Europe; Plymouth has 29k residents in the most 10% deprived areas in England.
The Spark project is vital in the South West to connect and illuminate the pathways to increasing women’s safety and quality of life. Addressing the entire cycle from prevention at school age to working with Experts by Experience, Spark will result in a transformational blueprint for meeting women’s unmet complex needs with long-term sustainability in mind.
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Our e-newsletter goes out approx. every 2 months
t: 01752 255 758
e: office@trevi.org.uk