Our Children’s Centres offer support for families facing a wide range of challenges in their lives. We are increasingly drawing on the experiences of other services across our charity to develop programmes to help support families.
Nadia was experiencing domestic abuse from her husband when she was referred to our Children’s Centre service. She had split from her
husband and moved back in with her parents taking their young daughter with her. Nadia had found herself heavily in debt due to her husband financially abusing her and her family. Her husband started stalking her, following her and her daughter and sitting outside the
house they were living in. Nadia was supported by one of our Family Support team and completed our domestic abuse My Choice course.
Initially, she didn’t engage much or share her experiences with the other women in the group. Over time, Nadia began to talk about how the abuse she was experiencing was affecting her and she grew in confidence. We have supported Nadia to move on with other areas of her life, helping her to find a childcare setting, and she has regularly attended our stay and play sessions with her daughter, providing opportunities to meet other families. Unfortunately, Nadia’s husband continued to harass her and she reported him to the police. Our Support Worker completed a DASH checklist to help identify the risks that Nadia was experiencing with regard to Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour based abuse which resulted in a referral for a Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC). These meetings bring together the relevant agencies to share information on the highest risk domestic abuse cases. As a result, Nadia was allocated an Independent Domestic Violence Adviser (IDVA) who helped her to put some safety measures in place; such as non-molestation orders and support with the courts as the father was seeking contact with his daughter.
