Midlands Enterprise Awards 2020

20 | Midlands Enterprise Awards 2020 Best Domestic Abuse Victim Support Group 2020 Victim support groups are often a lifeline for those who experience trauma, and feel that they are alone. Trauma can be caused in many ways, but the specific area that Clare Walker Consultancy CIC works with, are those who have experienced domestic abuse. Clare has been providing her support group for victims of domestic abuse in and around Leicestershire for more than seventeen years. Find out more about the exceptional and often life-saving work that Clare does as we take a closer look. Based on her own experiences, Clare Walker, has always known that she needed to ensure service provision for victims of domestic abuse – was made better. For seventeen years, Clare has been providing a victims support group, which became a key strand to the company activities when she first set up Clare Walker Consultancy CIC, in 2011, where she is not only a Founding member but also a Domestic Abuse Consultant. Clare originally led this group with the support of her daughter; Sophie, as co-facilitator, Sophie is now Managing Director of Clare Walker Consultancy. Leaving Clare more time to run her other company; Clare Walker Consulting, this offers professionals training in multiagency settings both nationally and internationally, Lecturing at various Universities, Campaigning as well as being an Expert Witness for victims going through various court processes. The income from these aspects of her work offers some prop- funds towards some of the work delivered by the team in Clare Walker Consultancy CIC. By training professionals and lecturing students on professional degrees, Clare is able to ensure her message and her expertise is imparted to others on the front line, in whatever role and whatever context, they work in. Whether professionals, students, beneficiaries or the general public, as Clare states, “All of us are products of our own society and we all have families, friends and communities, hence the learning can be invaluable, both personally and professionally – domestic abuse does not reside within a particular community or practice, it resides within an individual’s mindset”. Domestic abuse is a criminal act, which has been pulled into the spotlight during lockdown, because of the increased death rates and significant increased demands on services for victims. Clare maintains that the increased demand is not an increase in abuse, but an increase in the intensity of abuse – what is being seen now, Clare states, is the truer picture of what always was before. But with lockdown, there are no Safety Zones to escape to for victims, and perpetrators know they have more control due to lockdown – it has created the perfect storm. Discussion on the topic of domestic abuse has spilled over many times this year with a significant increase in murders. The media have repeatedly invited Clare to give comment, on; BBC News Channel, Victoria Derbyshire Show, The Observer, local Radio stations as well as Radio 2 and 4 news and Women’s Hour. Most recently regarding the Defamation Case brought by Johnny Depp against Amber Heard. Domestic Abuse is the most preventable cause of death, illness and disability, with 961 women being slaughtered by men every week - globally. Over 98% of domestic abuse convictions are perpetrated by men, and predominantly against women. There are no barriers for the women attending Clare’s support group. Clare states “If a female identifies a need to attend group, then she is welcome too, for as long as she chooses and as frequently as she can. It’s not so simple to consider ourselves to be victims and it can be even harder to pick up the phone”. Sophie and the team continue to deliver group on the same ethos as Clare. Sophie stated, “We continue to run it just as Mum set it up, because that works and that is accessible for the women we’re trying to reach. We aim to remove any aspects of control or coercion that all victims experience in abusive relationships, and is often repeated by agency interventions”. Sometimes agencies and services do this unwittingly and sometimes intentionally, dependant on their roles and remits. Sometimes the women will stop attending group they may not attend for a few years. But they know they can always return to group, share their celebrations of progress, come back to look again at relationship dynamics or sometimes just to re-experience the feelings of non-judgemental safety that the group Sep20417 organically provides. Sophie explained that many times the women want to give something back after they have attended group - its not uncommon for survivors to want to smooth the path of those coming along after them. Hence, Sophies team of staff and volunteers, have come through attending the group themselves – no one within Clare Walker Consultancy has zero experience of layers of oppression and abuse. Given the combined experiences, staff understand better than most what victims go through. Clare Walker Consultancy also offers a befriending service, which isn’t an emergency provision, but is monitored and responded to outside of regular working hours. This year, more than ever before this has enabled the team to respond appropriately and effectively at the point of need; whether its people intending to commit acts of suicide, being put at increased risk by their perpetrator or any other context of risk. There has been more than one Saturday night or very early morning where the team have had to alert emergency services or even attend with emergency services. Clare Walker Consultancy is committed to its aims and ethos of; educate, enable and empower. And for those who wish too, there are always opportunities for the women who wish to further develop themselves into volunteer roles where they can build their confidence and skills to then transfer into paid work, thereby increasing the control they have of their own lives as well as financial independence. When lockdown first hit the United Kingdom, Clare Walker Consultancy had to close its weekly physical group and support the women via the peer led Chat group. It soon became clear that the level of need was accelerating – that was evident from the mood in the Chat, Clare said she knew they had to get services up and running again as soon as possible. The small team of then, six, newly recruited volunteers who joined Clare and Sophie on the team, quickly learned how to work with Zoom, complete referrals via videocalls. What seemed like overnight, the