To support victims of abuse from Eastern Europe the trained worker provides one-to-one support to help the victim assess her situation and plan her escape should she need to flee urgently. The worker will advocate for the victim to local agencies to ensure that she can access the support that she needs, this includes accessing legal advice, healthcare, social services the police and housing. Where appropriate the worker will also support the victim to bring the perpetrator of the abuse.

The project is needed because the charity is seeing high numbers of victims of domestic abuse who are in need of support. Often these victims have no recourse to public funds and so suffer terrible abuse because they are at risk of homelessness if they flee. We found that many victims spoke little English so communicating their level of need and the abuse that they have suffered was difficult and very traumatic. Last year our project supported 76 women from Eastern Europe.

The result of the work is that over 70 Eastern European victims of abuse are supported each year, of these 86% will engage with the service. The children of these victims can be referred to our Children's Services Team for therapeutic support. Victims have better access to health care, safety planning and legal advice as our worker can advocate on their behalf with local agencies.