Refuge provides women and their children with vital, safe, emergency accommodation when they are escaping domestic violence, and practical and emotional support when they can be at their most vulnerable. We are pleased to say that we have completed the purchase of two adjoining houses in Birmingham which is the culmination of five years work, to create a seven flat refuge opening in autumn 2013.

Over the past three years, we have provided emergency accommodation for over 1,300 women and children. However we know that 60% of women seeking refuge are unsuccessful due to an acute shortage of spaces. In Birmingham, 40% of homeless women are homeless as a result of domestic violence. Without a safe place to go, women and their children stay in violent relationships.

In refuge, we aim to make women and children feel safe right from the outset. We provide play sessions for children to help them make sense of their experiences and realise they are not to blame; we run family support sessions to rebuild mother-child and sibling relationships which have often been fractured by the perpetrator; we support women to meet their health, education and wellbeing needs and those of their children, and we assist with housing and resettlement after their stay is over.