About Us

Established in 1998, Standing Together Against Domestic Violence (Standing Together) coordinates the ground-breaking multi-agency response to the crime of domestic violence. Standing Together influences national policy and practice by initiating and driving innovation, providing safer options for women and holding perpetrators accountable. Standing Together means:

• A coordinated response
• Good practice by every participating agency
• Monitoring against agreed aims
• Inter-agency accountability
• Tracking of offenders
• Advocacy and support for every victim requesting it (currently those victims calling the police; accessing targeted emergency health services or the "sanctuary project" as a housing option).

The Standing Together Against Domestic Violence Trust was formed in 2001 to take forward the work developed by the Steering Committee of Standing Together, to provide management and develop the strategy within which the operational work could flourish. Standing Together was registered as a charity in October 2001 (Registered Charity Number 1088844) and was incorporated as a limited company in September 2001 (Company Registration Number 4283131).

Aims of the Trust

1. To promote for the public benefit the provision of services which are:
   1. Directed towards the prevention of domestic violence
   2. Meet the needs of survivors of domestic violence and their families.
2. To advance the education of voluntary and statutory agencies and the public in all aspects of domestic violence, including without limit, its causes and prevention and the relief of its consequences.

Objectives of Standing Together

1. To increase the safety of domestic violence survivors in the short and longer term.
2. To increase the safety of children who live with domestic violence.
3. To hold abusers accountable for their actions.
4. To ensure that the onus of holding the abuser accountable lies with statutory and other agencies rather than with the survivor.
5. Whilst acknowledging that each agency maintains its independence, to ensure that all the agencies involved work in an integrated and coordinated way with each other to achieve these objectives.
6. To provide accountability to the public, to survivors, and to other agencies for the ways in which domestic violence is handled.
7. To test and develop effective policies, procedures and practical measures which can be integrated into the ongoing work of agencies.

The objectives provide the framework for setting targets and monitoring and evaluating the Project.

Definition of Domestic Violence

Standing Together participants use the term domestic violence to include any form of physical, sexual or emotional abuse within or after an intimate relationship. Current research and the experiences of a wide range of agencies responding to domestic violence indicate that overwhelmingly it is women who experience abuse and almost always, it is the male partners or ex-partners who are the perpetrators. The project therefore has a focus on the needs of women survivors for services. However, it is acknowledged that domestic violence also takes place within same sex relationships and that men can be abused by women. Standing Together aims to respond appropriately to the needs of male survivors for services.

Staffing

Staff are employed by the Standing Together Trust to carry out the work of coordination, training, information sharing and development. Partnerships do not just happen. Standing Together staff:

• convene and service the multi-agency steering groups of Standing Together;
• draft protocols and procedures for agreement;
• document the policy and procedural changes agreed, and the thinking behind them;
• offer support as necessary to ensure that all partners have an equal say — in particular, the voluntary sector agencies working directly with survivors;
• work with staff at all levels in partner agencies to promote understanding of domestic violence and define best practice in the context of each organisation's work;
• ensure that this development work with individual agencies is fed into the partnership and the implications and opportunities it creates fully explored;
• plan, co-ordinate and deliver training to staff in partner agencies;
• research the feasibility and detail of new developments, commissioning external experts if appropriate;
• manage the process of consultation with survivors — deciding on appropriate questions to ask, then ensuring that material generated really does influence the partnership's actions and that the consultation is a safe, positive and respectful experience for participants;
• receive, input and analyse monitoring data on behalf of the partnership, and report on it and what it means;
• raise funds as necessary to implement change; then account to funders;
• keep up with best practice in this country and abroad and make sure it informs our work;
• identify opportunities for further development in line with Standing Together's aims;
• promote policy and practice change at all levels locally and nationally to improve the safety of survivors of domestic violence and their children.

Funding

Since 1998, Standing Together has been grateful for the support from, amongst others:

• The Lottery
• Regenasis, the Regeneration Partnership in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF)
• The Daphne Programme of the EEC
• The Crime Reduction Programme of the Home Office
• A Public Service Agreement with LBHF
• Hammersmith & Fulham Partnership Against Crime
• Metropolitan Police Hammersmith & Fulham
• Association of London Government
• Camelot Foundation
• Poor Box Fund
• The City Parochial Foundation
• The Sigrid Rausing Trust
• The Henry Smith Charity
• Awards for All
• The Dr Edwards & Bishop Kings Fulham Charity
• The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation
• Hammersmith Hospitals Trustees — Amenities Committee
• Marks & Spencers (vouchers for survivors consultation)
• Boots the Chemist (vouchers for survivors consultation)
• Laura Ashley
• Hammersmith Hospitals Trustees' Amenities Committee — Patient Amenity Grant.

Donations are gratefully accepted.