Taunton Women's Aid: Summary of our year
 We supported local charity Mankind during the year
During the year we funded several local organisations working to support those suffering from or affected by domestic abuse, with grants generally in the region of £10,000.
In all cases we sought to fund those who could show their work benefitted a wide range and number of people, and although the Charity is keen to fund new pilot projects, during this year all grants were made to organisations we had previously supported. We were pleased to continue funding the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to employ a Gender Violence and Abuse Supervisor. This enabled an extension to the ASK RE pilot scheme, in which all clients of the service were given information about help for victims of domestic abuse. The new project is called INFORM RE, and had the potential to provide advice and information to everyone who visited the CAB offices. In addition, CAB were able to report that they had directly advised 275 of their clients about domestic abuse issues. We funded MIND to expand a previously funded pilot scheme, and develop an eight-week programme of workshops promoting healthy relationships to be delivered in secondary schools. Feedback from the three schools involved in the pilot scheme was positive and we are optimistic that the delivery of the full programme will have a positive impact on a significant number of students. We have continued to fund Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (SARSAS) for the provision of additional counsellors. As a direct result of the funding, an additional 144 women have received counselling and the feedback and comments show the value of the work carried out by SARSAS. One user commented “My SARSAS counsellor was very understanding and supportive. I always felt better after each session. SARSAS has helped me with my anxiety and confidence massively”. TWA has also funded the production of 1000 Self Help Guides, 760 of which have been distributed during the year. We have funded Mankind, a charity which works with male victims of domestic abuse, to run a drop-in centre in Taunton and to develop a Pattern Changing course. These courses are run for people who are free from an abusive relationship but still living with the effects of domestic abuse, and help them to understand how domestic abuse has impacted their lives, recognise negative patterns of behaviour by understanding the power and control that can occur in abusive relationships, and enable them to start to make more positive life choices. The drop-in centre has helped 17 people with a total of 85 hours contact time and the Pattern Changing course waits to be assessed. In addition, we have lobbied both nationally and locally on issues affecting domestic abuse. The most notable achievement in the area was the U-turn by the Government, which eventually agreed to continue the payment of Housing Benefit to residents of refuges, thereby ensuring in many cases that Refuges could remain open. We have also been pleased to note that in cases where we have funded pilot schemes, organisations have gone on to secure third party funding to continue their work. Thank you to everyone who has supported our work over the last year! During 2019 we will continue our grant-making work in Taunton and the surrounding areas. Please contact us if you have any questions or if we can help with your projects. |
Local charities we have supported during 2018:
Our 2019 round of grant funding is now open!
We're finally on Facebook! Find us at http://www.facebook.com/tauntonwomensaid/
Statement on GDPR
May 2018
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) require us to meet new legislation about how we handle personal data. Taunton Women's Aid would like to assure supporters that we do not hold personal details of any individuals or donors, apart from any details required by HMRC for Gift Aid. Historical client records are held in storage in accordance with our retention of records policy and destroyed after the appropriate time period. If you would like further clarification about any of these issues, please do contact us using the links above. |
Mind in Taunton and West Somerset gets £5,000 Grant Funding
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Taunton Women’s Aid has given a grant of £5,000 to Mind in Taunton in West Somerset to develop workshops for schools about domestic abuse and the mental health issues this can cause.
Mind Chief Executive Officer Andy Pritchard said: “Mind are delighted to be developing this work. There has been increasing evidence that the majority of mental health and relationship problems start with experiences in |
Project lead Jan Copley, Taunton Women’s Aid Trustee Judith Smith
and Mind Chief Executive Officer Andy Pritchard.
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Women’s Voices at Election Time – A Question Time Style Evening
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To celebrate International Women’s Day 2015 a group of local women decided to host an event ‘Women’s Voices at Election Time – a Question Time Style Evening’, in Wiveliscombe on Friday 13 March 2015. We were delighted to learn that proceeds from the evening would be donated to Taunton Women’s Aid.
The five main political parties were invited to put forward a female representative to discuss a range of questions put to them by members of the audience. The panel members were: Laura Bailhache - UKIP candidate for Taunton Deane; Rachel Gilmour – Liberal Democrat candidate for Taunton Deane; Julie Harvey-Smith - Green Party Candidate for Bridgwater and West Somerset; Rebecca Pow - Conservative candidate for Taunton, and Brenda Weston – Labour – former County councillor. Rosie Boycott, who now lives locally co-founded Spare Rib magazine in the 1970’s, and has remained active within the women’s movement, was also a panel member. Over 220 men and women of all ages spent a very interesting evening in Kingsmead School hall, listening to lively discussions on a range of topics. |
Women's Voices at election time, from left to right: Rebecca Pow, Helena Suffield-Thompson, Rachel Gilmour, Brenda Weston, Julie Harvey-Smith, Rosie Boycott and Fodo Higginson.
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Taunton Women’s Aid to become grant-making charity
18 August 2014
Taunton Women’s Aid is to become an independent grant-making charity and withdraw from delivering services in the Taunton area. Taunton Women’s Aid has provided support for women and children affected by domestic abuse in the Taunton area for over thirty years. Chair Janice Eagles explained: “We managed local refuge services until 2012, when domestic abuse services were put out to tender by Somerset County Council. Unfortunately, because we were a small, local charity we were unable to bid to run a county-wide service. Since then we have been running successful projects and support groups in the community, including working with the Halcon 1 team - a multi-agency team led by the police. We are very sorry that our current phase of active project work is drawing to a close. However, we hope to continue to be a charity that serves women and families in Taunton – although this will be in a new and different way for the foreseeable future. Later this year, Taunton Women’s Aid plans to re-launch as a grant-making charity, awarding small grants to projects that support adults and children in the Taunton area affected by domestic abuse. Further information will be available from www.tauntonwomensaid.org.uk. For more information or if you have any enquiries, please email info@tauntonwomensaid.org.uk. |
Putting our thanks on record
"We would like to extend our thanks to all our supporters and
especially to the staff who will be leaving Taunton Women’s Aid, for all of the
hard work that they have put into supporting women and children. We wish them – and all the women and families
who we have worked with – best wishes and good luck for the future."
Janice Eagles, Chair, on behalf of the Management Committee Please note:
TWA no longer manage the refuge services within Taunton Please contact: www.womensaid.org.uk or www.somersetsurvivors.org.uk |
