Safety and Justice for Victims of Abuse

Supports people who experience domestic abuse, sexual violence and exploitation and child abuse.

People affected by these crimes experience long-term social, emotional, psychological and economic impacts. The crimes share low reporting levels, high rates of cases ‘dropping out’ of the criminal justice system, and high levels of repeat victimisation. Many victims do not report a case for fear of further abuse, or because they think they will not be believed or taken seriously. They may also be prevented from getting the help they need because of the myths and misunderstanding that surround the issues. Some victims will experience abuse in several ways – for example, women forced into prostitution by abusive partners. We want to invest in organisations that can help:

  • reduce the incidence of these crimes;
  • reduce their impact on victims and their families;
  • reduce repeat victimisation;
  • increase the number of cases going through the criminal justice system.

These are ambitious goals, and our investments will always be part of a much bigger picture. Our contribution will be to increase the availability of services to victims, to improve the quality and impact of organisations’ work, to improve communication and sharing of good practice in the field and to lever in other statutory and charitable resources.

The prevalence of these crimes means that victims will be present amongst most organisations’ user groups. However, in this programme we are interested only in funding specialist work which specifically targets these victims. If you have not received funding from this programme in the past and are thinking about making an application, please contact the Programme Manager, Cullagh Warnock, first.

Examples of the kinds of work in which we might invest include:

  • advocacy and support;
  • crisis services;
  • schemes that encourage reporting of crimes;
  • prevention and education programmes with children and young people;
  • projects that encourage survivors to get involved in policy and practice development;
  • research that has a clear application to policy and practice.

We will provide funding to expand the work of existing organisations where it is effective, to develop new services and to help organisations come together to learn from each other and work together on a problem.

Safety and Justice e-bulletin

An e-bulletin, to share information about events, resources and publications in the areas of work covered by the Safety & Justice programme is sent fortnightly. To receive the e-bulletin, please click on the below link to subscribe.

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