Almost £22,000 of drug money taken from the pockets of crooks will now go to help a leading domestic abuse charity.
Merseyside Police confiscate thousands of pounds of dirty cash from criminals selling drugs and spreading misery in our communities.
After this money is seized by officers, courts normally order its forfeiture, before it used to be directed back into Home Office funds.
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Liverpool Crown Court judges decided these funds should be sent directly to local charities, with a different one selected each month.
The initiative, which was launched in January and first supported KnifeSavers, applies to smaller amounts of money, forfeited under Section 27 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
But added together, £21,929.06 was raised in February, which is now heading to Wirral Women and Children's Aid (WWACA).
The ECHO can also reveal the next organisation to benefit is substance abuse and drugs awareness charity Evolve.
WWACA provides safe refuge accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic abuse, along with a range of vital support. The organisation also runs a 24-hour helpline on 0151 643 9766.
Emma Clark, head of service at the charity, said: "The money will be used to continue offering the domestic abuse recovery toolkit, with trauma work both with children and mothers in the community, and women and children in the refuge.
"The aim is to support victims, but also to break the cycle of violence by working with children growing up in abusive households."
WWACA works to empower women to enable them to begin a new life with their children in a non-violent environment.
It offers help in finding a safe new home and with budgeting and benefits support, accessing health services, finding nurseries and schools, accessing local community and cultural services, gaining legal advice, including accompanying women to appointments and court, safety planning, training, education and employment support.
You can find out more about Wirral Women and Children's Aid at https://www.wwaca.org/ or by calling the 24-hour domestic abuse helpline 0151 643 9766.
Wirral-based Evolve is an organisation set up to tackle substance abuse in the community and to raise awareness of the dangers of legal highs.
It was co-founded by counsellor and educator Alison Hodgson and former nurse Barbara Skinner, MBE.
Ms Skinner founded a successful volatile substance abuse (VSA) charity in 1989 following the death of her 16-year-old son, Darren, due to VSA. She became its CEO and worked tirelessly to prevent VSA until her 'retirement' in 2012.
Ms Hodgson has spent many years working in the field of VSA and has personal experience of the consequences of substance abuse when she learned of her 23-year-old nephew's drug related murder in 2007.
Sadly in early 2012, she further experienced the consequences of former legal highs when her 14-year-old great nephew was hospitalised due to the abuse of these drugs.
The two women discovered what they saw as an enormous gap in VSA service provision and, after researching the subject, decided to launch Evolve.
They said: "While concentrating on prevention through education, Evolve will engage with those who abuse these substances, many of whom know there's a better path to be on but just don't know how to get there. Evolve will strive to help them with the provision of counselling and family support.
"Working within the community, Evolve hopes to enable those who abuse to identify their value, redefine their sense of self, make positive choices, and seek to a brighter future... all before "at risk" becomes "inevitable" through its specific service provision of education, early intervention, counselling and family support programmes."
You can find out more about Evolve at http://www.evolvenorthwest.com/
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