A Nottingham charity founded by survivors of domestic abuse has revealed how they will be facing the ramifications of lockdown for ‘many years to come.’ As Juno Women’s Aid grows, the amount of service users are increasing too.
Juno Women’s Aid is a charity that is over 40 years old. Charity leaders have outlined their aims and what they would ideally like to see the charity do in the future to help women who are survivors of abuse rebuild their lives.
The charity provides many opportunities to ensure women positively move forward with their lives. The organisation - which supports thousands of women and children - listens to service user’s feedback to come up with more ways on how to help.
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With a helpline open every single day of the year, all hours, Juno fundraises and works with different organisations to maintain a vital service. As the cost of living has affected many areas of society, CEO of the charity, Yasmin Rehman said: “The cost of living has had a huge impact, we’re constantly watching what the government says and fundraising all the time. We have over 130 staff which has grown by 30% in the last two years and we want to maintain that growth.
“It’s about saving and changing lives.”
Juno Women’s Aid helpline receives around 11,000 calls per year from all over the country and has supported women living abroad. From 2021-2022, the service took over 17,000 calls, a definite increase prior to lockdown.
Yasmin Rehman continued: “Our concern is that we can’t take our eyes off the ball, the impact of lockdown is becoming apparent, and we will be dealing with this for many years to come. As a charity we’ve been hit by fuel costs, and the chancellor has announced £100m for charities in the spring budget, but there’s an awful lot of charities doing a lot of good work.
“We have an experienced staff team who specialise in the many forms of domestic abuse including coercive control, and we’re always sharing information across the organisation."
Yasmin continued: “Setting up mechanisms for survivors to hear directly from them has had a positive impact and our helpline is the first port of call for women who can ring directly for advice and support to make sure they’re safe.”
Yasmin outlined why the charity continues to be so successful and said: “We believe women straight away, we recognise them. In the future, we want to be sustainable and keep the charity here despite the challenging climate.
We want to have our own refuges, there aren’t enough in the whole country, that’s the big thing to expand on: refuge provision.”
Yasmin added: “In Nottingham we work alongside many charities, organisations and the authorities. We work with 'Tara’s Angels' to make sure women can access food and clothes with housing, that's the crooks of everything; the cost of housing means that many women stay in unsafe situations because they can’t afford another property and the cost of travel has also increased.”
Paula Clarke, deputy CEO of the charity has said: “Many women are worried they can’t afford to go alone, which is a huge risk but because of the cost of living, they feel like they don’t have a choice. The support given to children and young people has increased as well as mental health issues, and isolation has led to more domestic abuse that children have witnessed.”
For more information and to access Juno's services click here.
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