We’ve been working for over 10 years to deliver programmes which aim to end domestic abuse and, in this time, we’ve expanded our services rapidly.

A huge part of that journey has been our participation on the Scale Accelerator Programme, which our CEO, Michelle Hill presented to Spring Impact, Sport England and a range of local, national and international charities last week.

Michelle outlined more about who we are, what we do and our history of change as part of a national charity, to an independent North West based one. A large part of our growth was due to joining and completing the Scale Accelerator programme in 2015, which we were able to join thanks to Lloyds Bank Foundation.

Accessing this programme allowed us to scale our domestic abuse prevention programme which went from one site at the time, to varied programmes in nine sites across Greater Manchester.

Michelle specifically noted what we learnt through the accelerator programme:

• We worked through what model to use to scale – and agreed on growing through a hub and spoke branch model
• We developed a financial model which proved it could be self-financing after 4 years but needed seed funding
• We built an evaluation model, wrote a theory of change and KPI framework (We were supported in this element by The Social Innovation Partnership)
• We worked on putting the programme in a box so that it was easy to replicate at scale

She noted that our main takeaways from the programme and overseeing such substantial growth in a short time include:

• An emphasis on partnership, we believe in and have benefitted from being a generous collaborator, but this should always be first based on shared values
• That you should ‘put it in a box properly’ and do it, not just play at it
• To always keep testing and refining the financial model to fit with your rate of growth

Following our recent GMCA funding from the Home Office, our domestic abuse services continue to expand as we work to address the cause of domestic abuse, whilst prioritising the safety of victims, survivors and children.

If you, or somebody you know may be experiencing domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence helpline or visit their website for more information.

If you are concerned about your behaviour in your relationships and would like to take the first step to seeking support and changing things for you and those around you, you can visit the Respect website or call them directly.

If you’re interested in Michelle Hill presenting or speaking at your events or training sessions, please contact Marketing & Communications Manager, Paige Hughes directly to arrange.