It can be difficult to know what to say or do when someone tells you they are experiencing domestic or sexual abuse. And we know that your response matters to survivors, and could make all the difference in what happens next.
Domestic abuse is everyone’s business. That’s why we work with organisations across the public and third sector to shape their response to survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, and build knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to provide a holistic and effective response to survivors.
“The training we received was clear, engaging and sensitive”
Royal Court Theatre
We draw on our extensive experience working across sectors providing training and consultancy services, and almost 45 years’ experience supporting survivors through our holistic and innovative frontline services.
Whether you are interested in one of our off the shelf packages, or looking to develop a bespoke training package for your team, or organisation, we can help.
Read more about our training and packages below, and contact us at training@solacewomensaid.org to discuss training for you
Our Training
All of our training packages are available to be delivered online, through 1 hour webinars to introduce key topics to large groups, and short, interactive workshops for in depth training with small groups.
Domestic abuse
Understanding domestic abuse and coercive control (CPD accredited)
This introductory course will give you a good understanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse and coercive control. You’ll know what to say if someone discloses abuse to you, and how to signpost on to support.
Supporting survivors of domestic abuse (CPD accredited)
Building on the knowledge from our introductory training, this course will help you develop an in depth understanding of domestic abuse and the confidence and skills to recognise and respond to survivors of abuse, and tools for providing continued support to survivors
Supporting older survivors of domestic abuse (CPD accredited)
This training focuses on the needs of survivors who are over the age of 55, giving you an understanding of how domestic abuse affects older survivors, how to spot the signs, and best practice for providing support that will help you meet the needs of older people.
Stalking and harassment in the context of domestic abuse
This course will provide an introduction to stalking and harassment as it intersects with domestic abuse, giving you an understanding of what we mean by stalking and harassment, how it can affect domestic abuse survivors, and what to do if someone is experiencing this.
Risk and needs assessment training
This training is available as an introductory course, introducing the principals of risk assessments and multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARAC); or as a longer course to enable staff to confidently carry out risk and needs assessments and support cases that go to MARAC.
Financial abuse
This course will help you understand what financial abuse is, how it impacts people, what signs you might notice if someone is experiencing financial abuse and the support that is available for survivors of financial abuse
Working with perpetrators of domestic abuse
This training will provide an overview of perpetrator behaviour, what perpetrator programmes do and how to refer in to perpetrator programmes. It will look more closely at the dynamics of abusive behaviour and how to recognise risk, as well as providing practical tools for working with perpetrators.
Sexual abuse and consent
Understanding sexual abuse
This course will give participants an understanding of different forms of sexual abuse, how it can impact on survivors, barriers to disclosing abuse and the skills to respond to disclosures of abuse and signpost to sources of support.
Supporting survivors of sexual abuse (CPD accredited)
This full day training will build on the knowledge learned in our half day course, and provide more in depth awareness and understanding of criminal justice processes and the role of an ISVAs, and how to provide practical and emotional support for survivors.
Having conversations around consent
This training will provide an introduction to consent, exploring and unpacking definitions and getting to grips with so-called ‘grey areas’, before going on to explore how to challenge common myths and misconceptions around sexual violence, identify power dynamics and exploitative relationships, and engage people in conversations around consent.
Trauma informed practice
Trauma informed practice for frontline professionals
This training is available as a half day course, which will explore the definition and impacts of trauma on the body and the brain, and introduce the principles of trauma informed practice. The full day course will provide practical strategies for trauma informed practice, and how to look after your self and your teams when doing frontline work.
Advocating for survivors who face multiple severe and multiple disadvantage
This training will explore what we mean by severe and multiple disadvantage, the barriers to accessing support and services, and tools for advocacy and support.
Practical strategies for building resilience
This training will explore how we define and recognise compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and secondary traumatisation, the importance of maintaining resilience when working in a front-line service, and how to apply tools for personal reflective practice and self-care.
Supporting children and young people
Supporting children and young people affected by domestic abuse (CPD accredited)
This training explores the impact of domestic abuse on children and young people, how to respond to a child or young person who discloses domestic abuse, and how to provide support in holistic and person centred way.
Domestic abuse and housing
We know that professionals in the housing sector play a unique role in identifying abuse and supporting survivors. Our training is designed to support local authority housing teams, housing associations, and organisations and landlords working in the private rented sector, to help them build the knowledge, skills and tools they need to shape and improve their approach to tackling domestic abuse. We draw on our expertise from the extensive work we have done with housing providers across London, and our years of experience providing safe homes for survivors.
Find out more about our training packages for housing providers here.
Upcoming training
We run open training courses throughout the year. Find out dates for our upcoming courses and book your place here.
Champions Training
Our champions training package is a three day training which will up skill key members of staff in your organisation to act as semi-experts on domestic abuse in your organisation. Trained champions will then join our champions network, where they’ll have access to our quarterly networking events and ongoing support from us to help them keep their knowledge and skills up to date.
See more about our champions training here.
Bespoke training and consultancy
Are you looking for something a bit different? You might be thinking about developing or improving policies and processes for how your organisation supports survivors; or perhaps you’d like to discuss how we can support you to deliver your own domestic abuse training in house, developing a package for you and training your trainers.
Whatever it is you’re looking for, please get in touch with us at training@solacewomensaid.org to discuss your needs.
About us
Why choose Solace
At Solace, we’ve been supporting survivors of abuse for over 40 years. Our background in providing frontline support for survivors who need it most gives us unique insight into the important role that workplaces can play in supporting survivors, providing security and support at a time when their lives are in turmoil.
Our training packages are designed with the survivor at their core, to ensure that the solutions work for them; and the needs of organisations in the forefront, to ensure that the learning and tools are practically implementable.
And, as a social enterprise, working with means investing in our cause. We reinvest our profits to enable us to reach and educate more people about abuse.
Our approach
We want people to get the most out of our training and across all of our packages we focus not only increasing knowledge and understanding, but developing people’s practical skills, confidence and behaviours to be able to put that knowledge into practice.
Our training is interactive, participatory, thought-provoking and sensitive to the needs of our participants. We know that when it comes to training, one size does not fit all. That’s why when you come to us, as standard, we will have an initial discussion with you to find out how we can tailor our packages to best meet the needs of your organisation and staff teams. We’ll ask questions about the challenges your staff are facing and what kind of outcomes you would like to see from this training to inform our approach.
Don’t just take our word from it – read what some of our clients have had to say here.