We’re so pleased to announce that we’ve been awarded a grant from The National Lottery Community Fund to keep our amazing Ruby service going. Thanks to this funding, we can keep on providing vital support to people on Merseyside, and now also people in Warrington, who are experiencing domestic abuse.

 

It’s been widely reported that the coronavirus pandemic has increased the number of people experiencing domestic abuse. With national lockdowns keeping us indoors, the homes of people experiencing domestic abuse have become pressure-cookers, with many people feeling even more isolated than ever before.

 

It’s been our hope that these people would continue reaching out to us for support – and that we could help prevent domestic abuse for as many people as possible. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, we’ve supported over 180 people experiencing domestic violence – up 67% after the first lockdown compared to the same time in 2019. The National Lottery Community Fund grant we’ve received will help us to continue supporting these people and many more over the next six months – and thanks to this funding, we’re delighted to now be able to expand our service to cover Warrington as well as Merseyside.

 

While anyone at all can in Merseyside or Warrington can contact us for support with domestic abuse, we have had a lot of feedback from women and men we’ve supported over the years about this feeling of being ‘passed around’ – that to help them change their lives to escape the domestic abuse they were victim to, they needed support with other issues in their lives, such as substance misuse, mental health challenges or having a partner in prison, but struggled to find the help they needed. The impact of this is not just felt by those experiencing the abuse, but also by their children.

 

At PSS we have a number of family-oriented services that run alongside Ruby to support children and families who are experiencing adversity from all different aspects of life. We’ve been working hard to integrate our Family Impact, Prisoners’ Families and Parent and Baby Relationships services with Ruby to offer women a bigger, more comprehensive web of support. Our new Lottery funding is going to enable us to continue to evolve this work and find new ways we can go further for the women and men we support and their families.

 

We’d like to say a big thank you to The National Lottery Community Fund for helping us to continue to support victims of domestic violence.