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Services

• Introduction

• Advice

• Counselling

• Substance Misuse Service

• Solicitor's Service

• Irish Travellers Outreach and Resettlement Service

• Refuge Accommodation

Camden

• Family Support Service

• Floating Support

Islington

• Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocacy Service

• Family Support Service

• Floating Support

Lambeth

• Floating Support

Enfield

• Enfield Domestic Violence Family Advice Service

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Introduction

We offer safe housing in our refuges across London and also offer community based support for women living in their own homes.

We offer safe housing in our refuges across London including specialist support for Irish,
including Travelling women and children and women and children affected by substance
misuse. We also offer a range of community based services: advice, support, legal services, counselling, parenting services, children's services including individual and group counselling. We also run domestic violence workshops and life skills training.

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Advice

What is the Advice Service?

The Advice Service provides information, advice, advocacy, support and crisis intervention to women and their children who are affected by domestic and/or sexual violence. We run a number of outreach advice sessions across North London – phone our advice number for further details.

Who is it for?

The advice service is for women experiencing or escaping domestic violence or women who want advice about sexual violence, whether recent or in their childhood.
We also provide information and advice to agencies working with women including women with mental health issues, women who use drugs and/or alcohol, women in same sex relationships and transgendered women. We will arrange interpreters and welcome calls from deaf and hearing-impaired callers through Typetalk.

What kind of support?

The advice service provides support and advice on a range of issues including legal support and protection, reporting to the police, welfare benefit entitlements, impact of immigration rules on benefits and housing and support around this issue (including for women with no recourse to public funds), housing rights, child contact and safety planning. If you need a more specialist service, we will help you by giving you information about other services or making a referral on your behalf. The service will also help you find emergency accommodation in a refuge and has got access to up to date information about vacancies in refuges all over the UK.

How can I contact the Advice Service?

You can contact us directly; we also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies.

You can make an appointment and speak face to face with an Advice Worker; access confidential advice over the telephone or email us as follows:

Opening hours:
Monday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Tuesday: 2.00pm - 4.30pm
Wednesday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Thursday: 10.00am - 1.00pm
Friday: 10.00am - 4.00pm

Phone: Freephone 0808 802 5565
Email: advice@solacewomensaid.org

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Counselling

What is the counselling service?

We are a specialist domestic and sexual violence service offering counselling to women age 16 + who have been affected by domestic violence in a personal relationship. Through counselling women have the chance to work through issues around domestic and/or sexual violence that might be causing anxiety and holding back their lives.

Counselling provides a space to explore your issues in order to find a more fulfilling way of living. Once things are looked at in counselling and are brought into the open in a safe way they often become more manageable and have less power to negatively influence or hurt.

Who is it for?

We work with women who have experienced domestic/sexual abuse now or in the past as children. We offer an assessment session followed by up to 16 free weekly sessions of 50 minutes each.

Who are the workers?

The counselling service is run by the Counselling Manager, the Counselling Co-Ordinator and a team of volunteers working in our target boroughs. The counsellors are all volunteers either qualified or in their final year of training. The service offers a valuable placement opportunity to new counsellors providing supervision and training. In turn we can then draw on a diverse and varied pool of counsellors. Several of our counsellors speak community languages and we continually work to expand this group.

How do I contact the service?

There is a referral process and an assessment appointment prior to starting with a counsellor. We prioritise women using Solace Women’s Aid Services.

For further information please contact
Phone: 020 7272 0980

To make a referral
Phone: 0808 802 5565

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Substance Misuse Service

The purpose of the substance misuse service is to assess women who are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence, implement care plans to facilitate positive change and reduce harm through delievery and development of services. The women can be either in the community or at a refuge across any of the London Boroughs.

The service provides:

• Support and advice for women
• Assessment for care management
• Implementation of individual care plans
• One to one key working in refuge or at community outreach locations.
• Advice on reducing the risk of harm to themselves and others.
• Joint work with other service agencies.
• Follow up and referral to alternative services where appropriate.

In addition, substance misuse services at Solace are working towards increasing access into refuges across London for those experiencing drug/alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

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Solicitor's Service

What is SWA Solicitor’s Service?

We provide a specialist legal service to all women surviving domestic violence covering all aspects of law relating to children and families. We will make applications to the Court on your behalf and represent you in all family law cases.
We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority who govern how Solicitors must conduct themselves and the cases they are involved in.


Who is it for?

Any woman who has been affected by domestic violence and needs legal advice about any family law issues.

As well as applying to the Courts for Orders for your protection, we can also work with you to obtain Court Orders to protect your children. We can represent you in Court in cases concerning contact between your children and your ex-partner; where the children should live, questions about where you should live and any other family law matter. We can advise you if you are involved with, or want to start divorce proceedings, and represent you if you have financial matters to sort out following divorce proceedings.


Who are the workers?

Our legal team is made up of an experienced family law solicitor and two caseworkers. Our solicitor is a member of the Family Law Accreditation Scheme provided by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Resolution, the organisation concerned with Family Law. This ensures a high level of expertise. For more information visit www.resolution.org.uk


What kind of support?

We will work with you to ensure that your legal rights are upheld and that you are safe and protected. We will be involved in every step of your case, from advising you on the options available to you, issuing your case papers, attending Court and representing your case to the Judge. We will provide an address to your ex-partner so that he has no need to contact you directly at all. Your ex partner will have to deal with us as your solicitor and legal representative. We will make sure that the Court has all the information it needs to make orders about your children, as the Court must give first consideration to the welfare of any cases concerning children. We will advise you about any criminal proceedings that may be taken against your ex-partner following any assaults upon you.

We will ensure that you also have legal advice about any other problems you might have as a result your case. We will also refer you to other relevant services for non legal support and advice.


How do I contact SWA Solicitor service?

To make an appointment please contact us on

Phone: 020 7267 5629

Email: legal@solacewomensaid.org

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Irish Travellers Outreach and Resettlement Service

Our Specialist Outreach Worker offers help and advice to Irish women and Irish Travelling women and their children who are experiencing domestic violence.

She is able to support women and children to access refuge space, provide support while they are in the refuge and resettlement support once they leave.

You can contact us directly, we also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies

Phone: 07903 806 161

Email: info@solacewomensaid.org

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Refuge Accommodation

What is the refuge service?

Refuges provide emergency temporary housing for single women and women with children who are freeing themselves from domestic violence. Solace Women’s Aid runs 7 refuges across London for 76 single women and women with children.

Staff at all refuges work in partnership with women and children to shape and tailor the services we offer to create a unique and vibrant resource for each individual.


Who is it for?

Our refuges are for single women and women with children who are fleeing domestic violence and need a safe place to live. We accept boys up to the age of sixteen but we need to assess families with boys over 12 years.

One of our refuges provides accommodation for larger families and those with boys up to sixteen years. Another of our refuges, Solas Anois was established in response to the growing awareness of the particular needs of Irish/Traveller women and children. It remains the only Irish and Traveller specialist refuge in the U.K. Their specialist knowledge of the Irish/Traveller culture enables the provision of a service sensitive to, and responsive to the individual needs of the Irish and Traveller women and children.

Several of our refuges have dedicated space for women with disabilities. We provide interpreters for women who do not speak English and our staff speak a number of languages. We have two spaces across our refuges for women with no recourse to public funds and accept women who have no recourse and are funded by local authorities.

Who are the workers?

All refuges are staffed by experienced and trained staff who provide individual support for women. All refuges also have a children’s worker who provide both individual and group support for children. Regular house meetings mean that any ideas or concerns are listened to and acted on.


What kind of support?

Women are assigned a support worker as soon as they enter the refuge. She agrees a safety plan and a support plan with each woman. The support includes emotional support, accessing and applying for welfare benefits, support with physical and mental health including registering with a GP, referral to schools and nurseries, support with accessing education, training or work, support with drug or alcohol issues, accessing religious or cultural groups and counselling. She will also discuss a legal options, including acting as a witness against the perpetrator should a woman wish to do this.

We also run a number of different groups in the refuge including workshops on domestic violence, parenting and life skills. Groups for children include play groups, mother and baby groups, after school and holiday play schemes and feelings groups for the children. These provide an invaluable space for women and children to make sense of their experiences and provide support to move on.

We aim to empower women and children, supporting them to realise the opportunity they have created so they can lead their life free from Domestic Violence.


How can I contact the refuge service?

You can contact SWA advice and they will let you know where there are refuge spaces immediately available. We also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies.

Phone: Freephone 0808 802 5565
Open:
Monday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Tuesday: 2.00pm - 4.30pm
Wednesday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Thursday: 10.00am - 1.00pm
Friday: 10.00am - 4.00pm

or email advice@solacewomensaid.org

You can also phone the National Domestic Violence Helpline :
0808 2000 247 (free phone) 24 hours

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Family Support in Camden

What is the Family Support Service?

The Family Support Service provides a range of services to children and young people under the age of 16 and their mothers/carers in Camden.Support to children, young people and their mothers/carers.This service is run from a community centre in Camden. A support group for mothers/carers runs at the same time as the group for children or young people. The groups meet over a period of 12 weeks and provide a therapeutic environment in which feelings about their experiences of domestic violence can be expressed and explored. Parenting support to mothers/carers.This service provides individual parenting support and advice to mothers/carers in Camden as well as a six week parenting course. The course covers key aspects of positive parenting including praise and encouragement, parenting styles, the importance of play,communication between children and parents, the developing child and young person and the impact of domestic violence on parenting, children and young people.

Who are the Family Support Services for?

Family Support Services are available to children and young people under the age of 16 years affected by domestic violence and their mothers/ female carers. They are Boroughbased and only currently available in Camden and Islington.

Who are the workers?

The team are qualified Art Therapists. Art Therapy is a regulated profession and only those who are appropriately qualified and registered by the Health Professions Council (HPC) may legally describe themselves as Art Therapists.

How do I contact the Family Support service?

You can contact us directly we also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies. You will be offered an assessment in order to discuss whether the service is appropriate for you. The assessment provides an opportunity for you and your children to find out more about the service. The individual sessions and groups are offered on the same day and time each week.

For further information or to make a referral contact us on

Phone: 020 7428 7656

Email: familysupportservice@solacewomensaid.org

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Floating Support in Camden

What is the Floating Support Service?

The service provides support to women who have experienced or are experiencing domestic violence. We help you with your and your children’s safety and to deal with the impact of the violence you have experienced. Some of the work we will do with is:

• Initially, we will appoint a key worker to work with you. She will carry out a needs and safety assessment and draw up an individual support plan with you. She will work with you in your home if this is safe, in our office, or elsewhere in the community eg children’s centre

• The support we provide includes safety planning, advice and assistance around housing, debt, welfare benefits, injunctions and child contact, criminal proceedings, immigration and any other issues you may be experiencingReferrals can be to other services depending on you and what help you would like: for example we provide counselling, parenting support, legal advice and can refer you for help with mental health issues, immigration issues, substance misuse issues etcThe support is holistic and includes a 6 week domestic violence confidence building and life skills programme as well as other workshops and events throughout the yearWe offer support for up to six months in the first instance and longer depending on your support needs

• We offer a specialist service to Bangladeshi women in conjunction with Hopscotch Asian women’s centre
  

Who is it for?

The service is open to all women affected by domestic violence living in Camden. We provide interpreters and several of our staff speak other languages.

Who are the workers?

The service has one full time floating support manager, two generic floating support workers and one specialist Sylethi speaking worker.

How can I contact the service?

You can contact us directly through our advice service. We also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies. You can also email us -

Please call: Freephone 0808 802 5565

Email: floatingsupport@solacewomensaid.org

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Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocacy Service

What is the Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocacy Service?

The Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy Service (IDVAS) has three key roles:

• To provide a premier service to all survivors assessed at high risk of harm due to domestic violence, by providing safety planning, practical support and advocacy

• To provide support to survivors from Black and Minority Ethnic communities, heterosexual male survivors and survivors from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

• To provide advice to professionals on how to deal with survivors disclosing domestic violence, risk assessment, safety planning, next steps and appropriate referral agencies

Who is it for?

Women and men at high risk of domestic violence living in Islington. The service for women is delivered at SWA’s Outreach office – Islington. The men’s service is delivered in partnership with Islington Victim Support.


Who are the workers?

The service has one full time service manager, two generic female advocates, two specialist female advocates (one Somali speaker and one Turkish speaker) and a part time generic male advocate.


What kind of support?

The IDVAS can offer support, advice, information and assistance to you in relation to managing and reducing your risk, safety panning and exploring options including housing, welfare benefits, criminal and civil legal options.

In addition to the direct work with service users, the IDVAS also acts as a resource for Islington based organisations, working with or coming across domestic violence as an element of their overall work, offering information and guidance on responding appropriately to disclosure of domestic violence.

The Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) is a multi-agency forum for sharing information and action planning for domestic violence survivors where there is a high risk to the survivor of further assault or harm. The IDVAS and the MARAC are the lead agencies in Islington responsible for co-ordinating services to enhance the safety of women and men at high risk of domestic violence and their children. The IDVAS represent your interests as a survivor at the MARAC.

How can I get support?

The IDVAS does not accept self referrals. Referrals to the IDVAS come from statutory (health, housing, police) or voluntary agencies.

If you are not in touch with any agencies and you are:

A woman you can call our Advice Line on 020 8269 2121

A man you can call Islington Victim Support on 020 7700 6014

For further information or to make a referral,
phone : 020 7281 9284
email: advocacy@solacewomensaid.org

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Family Support in Islington

What is the Family Support Service?

The Family Support Service provides a range of services to children and young people under the age of 16 and their mothers/carers in Islington:

Children and young people - one to one and group art therapy.

This service is available in schools in Islington. Through art, play and talking, the children and the therapists work together to make sense of the children’s’ difficulties and offer a safe and healing space where the children can explore and express their thoughts and feelings about their experiences of domestic violence.

Mothers/carers - one to one therapeutic support.

The therapeutic support aims to help mothers/carers have a better understanding of the impact of domestic violence on their children, to increase confidence in their parenting skills and to develop a positive relationship with their child/children


Who are the Family Support Services for?

Family Support Services are available to children and young people under the age of 16 years affected by domestic violence and their mothers/ female carers.


Who are the workers?

The team are qualified Art Therapists and MA therapy students on placement. Art Therapy is a regulated profession and only those who are appropriately qualified and registered by the Health Professions Council (HPC) may legally describe themselves as Art Therapists.

How do I contact the Family Support service?

You can contact us directly we also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies. You will be offered an assessment in order to discuss whether the service is appropriate for you. The assessment provides an opportunity for you and your children to find out more about the service.


For further information or to make a referral contact us on
Phone: 020 7272 0408
email: familysupportservice@solacewomensaid.org

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Floating Support in Islington

What is the Floating Support Service?

We provide support to women who have experienced or are experiencing domestic violence.

• Initially, a key worker will carry out a needs and safety assessment and draw up an individual support plan for you. Key work sessions can take place in your home if this is safe, in our office, or in another location in the community.
  
  
• The support we provide includes safety planning, advice and assistance around housing, debt, welfare benefits, injunctions and child contract, criminal proceedings, immigration and any other issues you may be experiencing.
  
  
• Referrals can be made internally and externally depending on your support needs, for example for counselling, parenting support, legal advice, mental health issues and substance misuse issues.
  The support is holistic and includes a 6 week domestic violence confidence building and life skills programme as well as other workshops and events throughout the year.
  
  
• We offer support for up to six months in the first instance and longer depending on your support needs.
  
  
• We offer a specialist service to Bangladeshi women in Camden in conjunction with Hopscotch Asian women’s centre.
  
  
• In Islington we offer a similar service to black and minoroity ethnic women, the worker specialises in working with Bangladeshi women.
  
  
• We also offer a specialist service in Islington to young women aged 16-21 who are experiencing domestic violence and are pregnant or have children.

Who is it for?

If you are affected by domestic violence and live in Camden or Islington. However, if you live in Islington you will need to have a tenancy in your own name or be a owner occupier.

Who are the workers?

The service has one full time floating support manager, three generic floating support workers, two specialist Sylethi speaking workers, and specialist worker who works with young women.

How can I contact the service?

You can contact us directly. We also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies.

You can make an appointment and speak face to face with a advice worker or access confidential advice over the telephone as follows:

Freephone: 0808 802 5565

Opening hours:
Monday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Tuesday: 2.00pm - 4.30pm
Wednesday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Thursday:10.00am - 1.00pm
Friday: 10.00am - 4.00pm

Email: floatingsupport@solacewomensaid.org

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Floating Support in Lambeth

What is the Lambeth Floating Support Service?

The Lambeth Domestic Violence Floating Support Service is coordinated by Solace Women’s Aid in partnership with Lambeth Women’s Aid and Asha Projects.

The service will provide specific support to women and their children who have been affected by domestic violence and are living in their own homes within Lambeth.

We aim to prevent homelessness through the provision of practical tenancy and emotional support, to enable victims of domestic violence to remain in their homes, if it is safe to do so.

Who is it for?

Women affected by domestic violence and who live in Lambeth (if they have a tenancy or are owner occupiers in Lambeth).

Support offered:

The service works, in partnership with other agencies, to provide an individual and appropriate emotional and practical support package, lasting between 6-12 months, which could include:

• Safety planning

• Life skills development

• Advocacy

• Housing rights

• Money (including debt) management

• Legal advice (e.g. injunctions and immigration)

• Referrals to other relevant services

Who are the workers?

The team is made up of a Senior Floating Support Worker and two floating support workers.

How can I contact the service?

To make a referral, or if you have any questions about the service, please contact the Lambeth Domestic Violence Floating Support Service on (020) 7582 7737 to request a referral form.

When the referral form has been completed, please return it by either:

Email: lambethfs@solacewomensaid.org
Fax: (020) 7587 1346

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Advice Service

What is the Advice Service?

The Advice Service provides information, advice, advocacy, support and crisis intervention to women and their children who are affected by domestic and/or sexual violence. We run a number of outreach advice sessions across North London – phone our advice number for further details.

Who is it for?

The advice service is for women experiencing or escaping domestic violence or women who want advice about sexual violence, whether recent or in their childhood.
We also provide information and advice to agencies working with women including women with mental health issues, women who use drugs and/or alcohol, women in same sex relationships and transgendered women. We will arrange interpreters and welcome calls from deaf and hearing-impaired callers through Text Relay.


What kind of support?

The advice service provides support and advice on a range of issues including legal support and protection, reporting to the police, welfare benefit entitlements, impact of immigration rules on benefits and housing and support around this issue (including for women with no recourse to public funds), housing rights, child contact and safety planning. If you need a more specialist service, we will help you by giving you information about other services or making a referral on your behalf. The service will also help you find emergency accommodation in a refuge and has got access to up to date information about vacancies in refuges all over the UK.

How can I contact the Advice Service?

You can contact us directly; we also take referrals from statutory and voluntary agencies.

You can make an appointment and speak face to face with an Advice Worker; access confidential advice over the telephone:

Freephone: 0808 802 5565

Open
Monday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Tuesday: 2.00pm - 4.30pm
Wednesday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Thursday: 10.00am - 1.00pm
Friday: 10.00am - 4.00pm

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