Welcome

Welcome to the Standing Together Against Domestic Violence web site. This site will give you information about our structure, our projects, and our work.

To get help

Standing Together Against Domestic Violence work with statutory and voluntary sector agencies only. We do not work directly with who people are experiencing domestic violence.

If you are experiencing domestic violence please contact the numbers listed below or refer to your council's web site (look for information on community safety) as it may include information about domestic violence services in your area.

If you are in immediate danger, ring the police on 999. If the danger is not immediate, contact your local police station.

For 24-hour information, advice and support, contact the National Domestic Violence Helpline: Freephone 0808 2000 247 (run by Women's Aid and Refuge).

If you are concerned that an abuser could find out that you have accessed this or other sites, please read this advice.

Coordinating the Future: A National Conference For Those Delivering The Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence

Standing Together held their national conference for domestic violence coordinators on the 23rd April. Over 300 delegates attended the event at Imperial College, Kensington and the feedback has been very positive. We think this was the largest gathering of coordinators held in the UK and a very packed day saw discussions around the key issues facing the domestic violence sector.

The coordinated community response underpinned the speeches and workshops and the post-conference report available now to download brings all the themes together for the benefit of those working in this field.

• Coordinating the Future: The Post-Conference Report

Research

In 2007 Standing Together were commissioned by London Councils to undertake research into the extent of help seeking by known victims of domestic violence across various statutory and voluntary agencies.

This report, entitled, Completing the Jigsaw — Help-seeking by survivors of domestic violence: What’s the problem? gives an insight into the extent of domestic violence as a cross-cutting theme and the responses that agencies deliver, both when domestic violence is identified and when it has not been recognised. The research supports the assertion that this crime remains hidden from public view and often from the view of the worker who is trying to resolve the presenting issues of an individual who is unsafe, lacking confidence and suffering from significant abuse. Unless the causes of these symptoms are identified it is axiomatic that solutions offered to those symptoms are unlikely to be effective.

• Completing the Jigsaw — Help-seeking by survivors of domestic violence: What’s the problem?
  Full Report
• Completing the Jigsaw — Help-seeking by survivors of domestic violence: What’s the problem?
  Summary and Recommendations

Domestic abuse: Best Practice Papers — Written by and for Practitioners and Trainers

Standing Together against Domestic Violence and its partner agencies have extensive experience of developing best practice guidance for many aspects of operational domestic violence work, by both single agencies and by multi agency groups. A number of publications we have produced over the past 10 years specifically address best practice, for example the SDVC Toolkit (2007), and Equal Voices, about the experience of policing and the courts for LGBT survivors.

We have now produced the first in a new series of shorter publications called:

• Best Practice Paper Number 1:
  Good Practice Checklist for Interpreters Working With Domestic Violence Situations

The Checklist is designed for one to one interviews, and not specifically for court or to take account of the codes of guidance covering police interview settings. However, many of the good practice ideas are generic.

These papers will summarise best practice and ideas for practitioners who are responding to domestic abuse from within a range of statutory, community and voluntary sector services and agencies. They will be disseminated free by email and on the Standing Together website.

Let us know…

If you have any suggestions or requests for future papers in the series, please contact Standing Together. If you would like to offer to provide material for a Best Practice Paper, we would like to hear from you!

Domestic Violence Coordinator Survey

In order to achieve a clearer picture of the role of the Domestic Violence Coordinator (DVC), how it was constituted, funded and the issues confronted by post holders we conducted a national online survey with DVCs alongside the conference in April 2008.

A brief summary of the findings were presented at the conference and can be found in the post-conference report and the complete results are shown here.

• National Domestic Violence Survey Results

News

Standing Together's New Staff

Deb Nicholson
Partnership Manager

Deb has joined Standing Together fresh from managing the Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership, and with a long history of working in the violence against women sector in the UK and Australia. In 2004 Deb was the inaugural Coordinator of the ASSIST pilot (advocacy service s linked to specialist domestic abuse court), and helped introduce multi-agency operational protocols and risk assessments for the coordinated community response in one police division of Glasgow. During the development phase Deb appreciated the support of organisations such as Standing Together in developing ASSIST’s protocols. She attended the first CAADA advocacy training course and contributed to developing CAADA’s commissioning framework for IDVAs. In 2006 Deb returned to Australia for a year to work and established a coordinated community response to domestic violence in her home city which contributed to improved court outcomes for women. Deb also was a founding member of that city’s strong multi agency partnership to improve service provision to and protection of women and children affected by male violence. Deb has a great deal of experience working with, and is committed too, multi agency partnership working. She is looking forward to bringing her experience, skill and commitment to Standing Together to make a contribution to improving and further developing the coordinated community response in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Laura Burtenshaw
Office Manager and MARAC Administrator

Laura joined Standing Together in October having spent the last year working for Macmillan Cancer Support. She is very excited to be starting out on a career which maximises her degree in Criminology from Leicester University which focused on the impact of domestic violence on young people (the subject of her dissertation).
She is looking forward to using, and developing, her knowledge whilst working for Standing Together. Her role at Standing Together is going to be interesting, varied and challenging. Trying to manage an office full of motivated people whilst administering the MARAC certainly seems a full time role but the initial signs are all positive!

Well Done Dan!

Dan ran the Birmingham half marathon in just under 2 hours and 8 minutes and raised an incredible £1405.38 for Standing Together, with a very generous donation of £500 from his employers! A big thank you to Dan for his support and many thanks to all of you who sponsored him.

Consultancy Services

Standing Together offer support and guidance to domestic violence partnerships if they are seeking to build a community coordinated response, a Specialist Domestic Violence Court or many other aspects of responding to domestic violence.

Standing Together has published unique reports and resources around the work of the Specialist Domestic Violence Court at West London Magistrates Court and LGBT survivors. For further information visit the Publications page or order directly.

This site was last updated on 5 November 2008.
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