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Mayor of West Yorkshire secures £390,000 to tackle domestic abuse
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire has been successful in securing significant additional funding for the region to tackle domestic abuse.
£390,939 from the Home Office’s Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme, will be shared between four projects.
The funded initiatives hold offenders to account for their actions, and deliver bespoke training and guidance programmes aimed at changing their behaviour for good.
The funded projects are:
Kirklees Council - Caring Dads in Kirklees - A programme that has a positive impact on fathers parenting and co-parenting practices.
Restorative Solutions - Cautions and Relationship Abuse (CARA) service to meet the increasing demand to existing CARA service as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Restorative Solutions – Restore Families - A focused adolescent violence programme to address youth violence displayed towards family members and peers and 1-1 whole family support for both perpetrator and victim.
Yorkshire Children Centre - Recognise Reflect Change (RRC) targeting male perpetrators and bringing a focussed session for stalking behaviours.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire said: “I am extremely pleased that we’ve been able to secure these additional resources for West Yorkshire.
“It’s not just a large sum of funding, it’s fewer victims of domestic abuse, it’s perpetrator’s understanding their behaviour is wrong and making a commitment to stop. It’s also children growing up in a safe environment – like they all should.
“We know the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions has meant rising number of Domestic Violence incidents, and some of this money will be going to support services directly dealing with this fall out.
“Tackling offender behaviour is just one element of the fight against domestic abuse and I want victims in West Yorkshire to know that they absolutely come first. For anyone needing support on these issues please contact the police, Victim Support, or my office and you will be directed to the right services.”
Kate Hook, Director of Corporate Services, Restorative Solutions CIC, said: “Restorative Solutions are delighted that our domestic abuse perpetrator work, funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, has supported this successful bid.
“We are delivering two key areas of work, firstly the successful commissioned CARA programme, working closely with West Yorkshire Police, will strengthen the embedded referral pathway to meet the increase in demand, over 30% higher than anticipated, and ensure that no referral is turned away and more perpetrators and their victims will benefit from CARA in the coming year. Secondly, we are bringing the Restore Families Remote programme to West Yorkshire, having successfully delivered this elsewhere throughout the pandemic and since 2015 as a face to face programme. Our Restore Families Remote project will bring highly experienced facilitators to West Yorkshire and through our partnership working will support up to 60 young people and their families over the coming year.”
Catherine McKenzie, Head of Children and Family Services, said: “We are delighted to announce that we have been granted funding. This will enable our dedicated team at Yorkshire Children’s Charity to deliver our Recognise Reflect Change (RCC) programme. This specialist programme has been developed to tackle the growing issue of domestic abuse, and we will work closely with male perpetrators within the Kirklees area to address the root cause of these behaviours. We are extremely grateful to receive the funds needed for this programme that aims to break the cycle of domestic abuse.”
