TLC: Talk, Listen, Change have successfully secured funding of over £1Million from the Home Office to expand our domestic abuse prevention services in partnership with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and with Manchester, Salford, Stockport and Wigan Councils.

 

 

Over the coming 12 months, we will be expanding a number of our existing programmes and developing several new ones, which includes working with men in same-sex relationships and people who do not speak English as a first language. This allows us to reach considerably more people than ever before and enables us to pioneer new approaches in this crucial area of work.

For over 10 years our domestic abuse prevention work has developed quickly, including expanding our reach to different areas and delivering innovative and industry leading work such as our Women’s Behaviour Change Programme.

Our new services will include working with both male and female perpetrators, addressing the cause of domestic abuse, which is the perpetrators behaviour. We always work with a whole-family approach to domestic abuse prevention and are proud to offer integrated support for victims, survivors and children and young people. Their safety is paramount and as with all our domestic abuse work, we will be putting their safety, health and overall wellbeing at the heart of everything we do.

The first of our new services is the existing Drive Project, which is a partnership of Safe Lives, Respect and Social Finance. Delivered in Manchester and Salford, this programme will work with perpetrators who are high risk and causing high levels of harm in their relationships and will include a service for partners and children.

The second area of our work includes expanding our existing Bridging to Change Programme, which works with heterosexual men and both heterosexual and same sex women in Salford and Manchester, and beginning to deliver this service in Stockport and Wigan. This work will include trialling new services such as working with people who don’t have English as a first language and men in same-sex relationships, with a mixture of both 1-2-1 and group delivery.

 

In addition, we will be developing a service in these areas for young people, who have developed unsafe and unhealthy behaviours in their own relationships such as towards partners, parents or carers. We will provide the opportunity for these young people to talk to somebody about what they’ve been through, reflect on their behaviour and they will be supported with tools and strategies to help develop safe and healthy relationships with others.

Our CEO, Michelle Hill, says:

We are delighted to have received the Home Office funding which will expand our existing domestic abuse prevention work and enable us to work with our key partners. We have always envisioned a future that developed this work further and thanks to this funding, not only will existing services expand, but for the first time we will be able to work with new communities who need support and intervention. Now, more than ever, we believe this work is absolutely vital

 

Michelle’s comments echo the difficulties we have seen in recent months due to Covid-19, where domestic abuse has made national headlines as sadly for many, home is not a safe place.

At our charity, we have continued to work with people throughout lockdown and it is our hope that through the expansion of these projects, we can further reduce domestic abuse and help victims, survivors and children through increasingly difficult circumstances. It is also our hope that through this work with our fantastic partners, that we can raise awareness about domestic abuse, reach more people and ensure that despite the current circumstances, it stays on the agenda of our government.