Blog posts

Cedar Saved For Another Three Months!

Posted on 29 March 2011 by lola Comments Off

VAV has been fighting for the CEDAR project’s (Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery project) continuation since we heard the plans to stop funding after March this year. We’re ecstatic to announce that we recently got the news that the deadline for funding to stop has been extended til the end of June this year. This gives more time for us to fight and find more funding for this inspirational pilot project.

CEDAR is a project which takes woman, children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse and gives them support and information relating to their experience of domestic abuse. Each member is assessed before starting the programme to make sure that it is safe for them to attend, and then attends a weekly group session over a period of twelve weeks. Cedar’s main aim is to teach members not to become another victim or perpetrator, and teaches coping mechanisms which are essential to survival of abuse. This really is an amazing project, and our hopes are that it will eventually be continued indefinitely.

Voices Unheard Launch National Research

Posted on 29 March 2011 by John Comments Off

Voices Unheard is an amazing group of young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people that has strived across Scotland to raise awareness of young LGBT people’s perspectives of domestic abuse and what services can do to improve the way they offer them help. It is run by LGBT Youth Scotland.

Voices Unheard logo

Voices Unheard has done local fact finding and consultations with young LGBT people in four areas – Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Borders. They launched this fact finding at local events which helped information sharing with lots of other organisations like Women’s Aid, youth workers, schools and the police forces of those areas.

Some members of VAV attended two of these local events – one in Dundee on the 2nd February and one in Glasgow on the 16th February. We found out many things like the fact that domestic abuse experienced by transgender people is more common than we thought. Also that the lack of representation of LGBT young people in advertising campaigns as well as lack of police awareness on the subject can create barriers to young LGBT people seeking help.

Delegates at the national launch

The launch of Voices Unheard’s national research which pulled together findings from all four areas was done spectacularly in Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth. VAV got to go on a tour of the place then sat down to hear Voices Unheard talk about their fact finding and recommendations. The day ended with a panel of which we asked questions of Scottish Women’s Aid, the Government, the Police, LGBT Youth and others about how to raise awareness of the needs of young LGBT people and how to improve services and multi agency approaches.

VAV Report Circulated to Cabinet

Posted on 29 March 2011 by pink Comments Off

VAV met with Ministers & CoSLA on the 1st February 2011 – we had a great meeting and we felt like we are really being listened to. A lot of positive things were said – it was the first time in a long time that everyone in VAV felt great after the meeting. We feel that we have built a really strong relationship with Ministers and CoSLA and long may it continue. Who knows what the next government will bring? 🙂

At the meeting Alex Neil, Minister for Housing and Communities, asked us to send a report to Cabinet summarising our findings and recommendations. This was circulated at the end of February. If you are interested, click here to read it: Voice Against Violence Report to Cabinet – Service Gaps for CYPEDA.

Big Lottery Meeting

Posted on 14 March 2011 by Declan Comments Off

Hey everyone! VAV has been busy with lots of events and visits recently, but I wanted to let you know about our recent meeting with the Big Lottery Fund. We’re quite excited about their dedicated fund of £3 million – called “Becoming a Survivor” – set aside to tackle domestic abuse in Scotland. Morphman and I met with the Lottery in Glasgow to share VAV’s views on achieving the following outcomes of Becoming a Survivor:

More people who have experienced domestic abuse are in homes of their choice and are more emotionally supported
Survivors of domestic abuse have a greater sense of self-worth and emotional well-being

We’re pleased to say that the meeting was a great success! We discussed important issues such as good multi-agency practice (with organisations like CEDAR), effective use of resources and, of course, how to promote participation! After the meeting, we received positive feedback about our time with staff from the Fund. We look forward to hearing about any future plans from the Big Lottery. 🙂

National Campaign Launched!

Posted on 1 February 2011 by Jack Comments Off

Voice Against Violence has played an important role in developing the Government’s new Domestic Abuse Advertising Campaign! It is targeted specifically at young people and was launched today (1st February). There will be an ad shown online when young people log in to various websites like Facebook or Bebo. There will also be posters going out to schools across the whole of Scotland!

We came up with the slogan: Feel like you’re living in a war zone?

The message of the campaign is to encourage young people to speak to a trusted adult or contact Childline if they are going through domestic abuse or know someone who is.

Here is the poster that will be going out to schools. Tell us what you think!

If you can’t see it very well you can open the Campaign poster – full size (it might take a while to load up).

VAV Survey – Have Your Say!

Posted on 1 February 2011 by Raya Comments Off

Are you 11-26 years old?

Then please take part in our new an exciting survey that we have made with the help of Young Scot! It asks for your views about domestic abuse and what needs changed in Scotland.

By doing the survey you will help us give Government the views of Scottish young people and be part of changing the future!

The survey is on Young Scot’s Say’s Who? website. Click on the image below to see it:

It is completely anonymous and you don’t have to answer all the questions if you don’t want to.

VAV will meet with Ministers and CoSLA

Posted on 30 January 2011 by John Comments Off

Voice Against Violence will speak to Ministers and CoSLA in Parliament on the 1st of February. All eight of us VAV people will be there together with Alex Neil the Minister for Housing and Communities, Adam Ingram who is Minister for Children and Early Years and Cllr Harry McGuigan who is the CoSLA Spokesperson for Community Wellbeing & Safety.

We will share our views on what needs to improve for children affected by domestic abuse. Some of the things we will talk about are:

1. Funding for the CEDAR Groupwork Programme as funding for it is likely to be stopped after March 2011.

2. Funding for Children’s Workers which is going to continue for at least another year – Great News!

Visit to Drumchapel Women’s Aid Refuge

Posted on 30 January 2011 by pink Comments Off

Raya, Jack and I (Pink!) lead on Priority 8 which is about making sure that women and children have a safe and high standard place to stay when they escape domestic abuse. It is also about making moving home smoother or helping some families to stay in their own homes safely.

Priority 8 is a huge area that covers refuges and homelessness prevention. Over the summer we visited the Drumchapel Women’s Aid refuge which is the most up-to-date in Scotland. We spoke to Women’s Aid workers and to Neil from Cairn Housing Association who built the refuge. We also spoke to two young people who lived in Drumchapel’s old refuge for 1 year; then they moved to the new one and got re-housed after 6 weeks.

What impressed us about Drumchapel was its size and its facilities – the teenagers’ room, the huge garden, the communal living room for women and the room for children. The flats are modern and big. Families do not have to share bathrooms or kitchens. We were also impressed by the workers who provide support 24/7. Their story of how the refuge was built is inspirational. They fought for ten years to complete it. At one point they even tried to build it themselves because the local authority did not want to give them enough funding to make it as high standard as it is today. The workers and the women trained themselves as builders and plumbers and that is when the local authority started to listen and Cairn Housing Association was invited to build it. What was most impressive though was how proud the young people are of the new refuge and how much of a difference living there has made to their lives.

Pink, Jack and Raya with the two young people in the refuge’s room for children

Why Create a Drama

Posted on 20 January 2011 by Admin Comments Off

“Why Create A Drama” consists of two plays called “Gold Stars And Dragon Marks” and “Crush”. While both plays are based around domestic abuse, “Gold Stars And Dragon Marks” is about growing up with domestic abuse at home, trying to hide the secret at school to avoid being bullied because of it, and keeping the bullying a secret as well. “Crush”, on the other hand, is about being a teenager and being in a relationship of domestic abuse. The play begins with a girl having a crush on her friend’s brother, and then progresses to them dating and him controlling her. Both plays are gripping and touch the viewer, as it shows exactly what happens in the real world.

In August we met with the professionals who produced Why Create a Drama: Alison and Callum from the Baldy Bane theatre company and Shona from Reduce Abuse in West Dunbartonshire.

They showed us the screenplays for the two performances which are basically film versions of the play. The idea is that schools do not need to pay for the live performance but teachers can download it for free from GLOW.

We need to get this project out to a lot more schools. It is fresh and it is real and it makes people listen!

The White Ribbon Campaign

Posted on 29 November 2010 by Admin Comments Off

The White Ribbon Campaign is for men and boys in Scotland who want to end violence against women.

Morphman is hugely passionate about it and has been following the organisation for a long time. Through his research on the campaign, he found out that they are doing an amazing job of promoting equality in every aspect of life, so we at VAV decided to make contact with a member of White Ribbon Scotland. Since then, we’ve been keeping up to date with each other, and Morphman even gave a talk about White Ribbon to senior civil servants, as well as several members of CoSLA and Ministers from the Scottish Parliament, emphasising their wonderful work. During the talk, Morphman gave a tour of the White Ribbon Scotland website, which details how you can make a pledge and what you can do to help the organisation achieve its targets; for example, some members distrubute white ribbon pins to males in their community, while those with a bit more time organise fund-raising events to help raise money and awareness of issues involving violence against women.

More recently, Morphman met up with a man named Callum who is the co-ordinator of White Ribbon Scotland where he was asked to organise an event in Glenrothes, Fife to help raise awareness of White Ribbon and issues of equality. Sadly, while the day went well and was very productive, many males didn’t turn up to the event. We are hoping that we can spread the word further and we dream of the day when equality reaches everyone.

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