“I feel 'am I enabling this relationship, am I allowing this relationship to continue through my support'?" • "If we worked 'safely' we wouldn't reach the survivor at all" •  "Chaotic behaviour can sometimes mask domestic abuse, making it hard to identify" 

Women experiencing multiple disadvantage and domestic abuse are among the most marginalised in our society. Research and experience have shown that they face considerable barriers in both identifying their experience as abuse and getting the specialist support that they need.  

We know that there are many frontline teams in homelessness support settings working with both survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse, sometimes within the same project, and often with little guidance on how to do so safely. In order to keep survivors safe and enable them to access the support they need, we strongly believe we need to also work with perpetrators and our guidance will outline how to do this effectively, and most importantly – safely. 

We’re proud to have worked with Standing Together to create practical guidance for professionals in homelessness settings - Working Effectively with Perpetrators and Survivors of Domestic Abuse in Homelessness Settings. 

This guidance provides practical advice for homelessness practitioners working on the frontline as well as points for consideration by those in strategic roles that have the power to embed the guidance within their organization or local area. The aim of the guidance is to; 

• Increase safety for survivors experiencing multiple disadvantage 
• Where appropriate, to motivate perpetrators of domestic abuse to recognise and address their behaviour, and support them to access appropriate help where possible. 
• Improve the skills, confidence and safety of practitioners working in these scenarios. 

Over the next six months, we’ll be piloting the guidance and developing a training workshop with local services. Once we’ve received adequate feedback and feel this has been thoroughly tested, we’ll be rolling this out as a training service for professionals working in homelessness settings. 

If you missed our launch event, you can catch-up on it below. You’ll hear from a survivor of domestic abuse (00:01:37), a panel of frontline workers that share experiences that highlight the need for this guidance (00:06:04), and will see Louisa Steele (Housing First and Homelessness Project Manager, Standing Together) and Lauren Wallace (Operational Development Manager, FLIC) present an introduction to the guidance (00:37:45). 

The guidance can be downloaded here. 

If you have any feedback or questions on the guidance and its content, or would simply like to reach out, please email [email protected].