Co-op Warm Spaces Funding Boost has provided £1,202 of match funding
Pathways to Healing with Hillingdon Women's Centre
Uxbridge, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
Pathways to Healing is an initiative to support survivors of domestic abuse move forward by taking positive steps to build a new life.
Who are we?
Hillingdon Women’s Centre (HWC) provides a women-only safe space that focuses on supporting vulnerable women (18+) in Hillingdon and surrounding boroughs. HWC provides a community service that focuses on empowering and supporting women in need.
We provide comprehensive services that are trauma-informed and help women to navigate their lives beyond an immediate crisis including general information and advice, practical support for survivors of gender violence, counselling services, legal advice, as well as wellbeing and employment workshops.
We also work alongside other community organisations addressing Violence Against Women and Girls.
Community impact
* During 21-22 we supported a total of 892 unique service users, 59% increase on the previous year.
* 1800 one-to-one appointments, delivered remotely or face-to-face
* We received a total of 111 referrals from professional agencies.
* In total, we facilitated 166 referrals for one-to-one legal advice sessions
Why are we crowdfunding?
Pathways to Healing is a six-week course of women-only domestic abuse workshops aimed at supporting survivors who are now safe as they move forward in their lives, free of violence.
The program is trauma-informed and developed in line with focus groups held with survivors of domestic abuse. We provide women with a safe space to reflect and consider how DA-related trauma has impacted them and offer support, strategies, and resources to encourage resilience and set goals for the future.
As COVID restrictions have eased, we are receiving a higher number of referrals for DA and have increased the size of cohorts in our regular sessions and are looking to run additional sessions to support the demand. This funding will enable us to deliver this programme over weekends or after work hours to support women who can't attend our regular sessions.
How we’ll spend the money raised
This project will be run as a series of 6 workshops, with a pre and post 1-2-1 session with each participant. Money raised via crowdfunding will be spent on renting a space (room hire at a local community centre), during weekend or after work hours for the workshops, payment for project lead/workshop facilitator, secondary facilitator, comfort boxes for participants (participant costs) and workshop materials.
Therefore, we will need to raise a minimum of £3700 to support this project as we plan to deliver two cohorts of Pathways to Healing over a 6 month period, benefitting between 16 and 20 women who would participate in the programme.
Testimonials from Pathways to Healing Participants
“I joined the programme because obviously I have been through a lot and I been on some courses before. But this time I was in hope that I could get better help to get out of the situation I was in. It gave me a better a view to understand my own problems and how to get out of them, specifically to understand my own trauma and help me to concentrate more on my treatment with my counsellor.”
"I have been able to forgive myself, I started my own business. I no longer feel ashamed about the fact that I was a victim of domestic abuse, I feel empowered."
"I feel free, I still have bad days, but I feel that I can enjoy life and dance in the rain. I am taking fitness challenges and smiling not only with my face but with my heart."
Thank you for your support! Any donation is truly appreciated and helps us deliver this programme to more women in our community.
This project successfully funded on 23rd March 2023