Why do you have a feminist stance? Aren’t men subject to domestic abuse too?
30% of women will be subjected to abuse by a partner at some point in their lifetime and 92% of defendants in domestic abuse related crime are male. In order to make the biggest difference we focus on male perpetrated violence towards women and are confident that a feminist analysis of male violence is the best way to enable women to take ownership of their lives. Men can be subjected to abuse and we are supported of efforts to support men.
How are you different to existing initiatives like the Freedom Programme?
We think courses like the Freedom Programme, Recovery Toolkit, Power To Change and others are doing a great job to enable women to move forward in their lives! We developed the Own My Life course to take women and practitioners further, to offer fresh perspectives and literacy about the latest research on trauma and abuse. We use lots of multimedia content, and while some organisations use the Own My Life course to complement their existing group work, others have been so excited about the Own My Life course that they have started solely using our course.
How many women’s lives have you changed through the programme?
We don't want to create extra work for practitioners who are facilitating the course, so we don't require them to tell us exactly how many women have accessed the course. By January 2021 we had trained 288 practitioners to run the course. Each woman who participates in the course needs an Own My Story journal and so far we have provided 1350 journals to organisations across the UK. You can read more about the impact of the course on women's lives HERE.
How do you ensure high standards are maintained when the courses are conducted by other facilitators?
Our training is incredibly successful at equipping practitioners to deliver the course well, with the course materials comprehensively covering all aspects of facilitation. Our guidance includes insisting that all facilitators have regular supervision and we offer group reflective practice sessions for facilitators. We provide regular updates to facilitators about the course content and require all those who are delivering the course to do so within an organisational contect that has appropriate safeguards to ensure the course is delivered to a high standard.
What are you doing to ensure you recruit a diverse range of trustees?
As a new charity we are excited to have such experienced and skilled trustees who are a diverse group of women. When we need to recruit further trustees our policy is to ensure a diversity of skills and experiences are represented across our trustee board.
I want to attend the Own My Life course as a participant, how do I do that?
We do not deliver the Own My Life course to women, we train practitioners within local services to run the course. This is because we believe that local services are best placed to support you. CLICK HERE to access the "Find A Course" page, and you can then contact your local organisation. Many organisations are running the course online, so if you can't find one that local to you, to contact your nearest course as they may be able to include you in an online course.
I want to book on training, but am unavailable during the current available dates. What can I do?
We regularly announce new training via our mailing list, which you can join by CLICKING HERE.