We are very proud to announce our successful award of the Ask Me project via Women’s Aid.
This week sees our very first Training Course taking place for our first tranche of Ask Me Ambassadors and we’re looking forward to presenting our fledgling Ambassadors!
The ‘community’ is often the first to know about domestic abuse. But lack of understanding and confidence can make people afraid to bring it up, and unsure of how to respond when someone tells them about it.
We are changing that. Our Change That Lasts Ask Me project is creating a team of Community Ambassadors to raise awareness of domestic abuse and create safe environments so that survivors feel able to speak out. They play a key role in signposting to services that specialise in domestic abuse – the refuges, helplines and outreach services. A Community Ambassador can be anyone who engages with people in their local area – it doesn’t have to be through work.
We will provide Community Ambassadors with the knowledge and skills to foster safe communities and have conversations that count. They will help survivors to talk about abuse without fear and shame, and challenge a culture that silences women.
The Change That Lasts Ask Me scheme offers a free two-day training course to inspire community members to become a Community Ambassador. The ambassadors will share what they have learnt with their friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and challenge myths, stereotypes and victim-blaming attitudes in their community. They will learn how to respond to a disclosure and about the expert services they can signpost people to for help.
There are two reasons for signing up:
• you might be an individual who has great reach into your local community; or
• you might be part of a business, signing up on behalf of your workplace
For further information, please refer to the leaflet here and here, and also email ctl@coventryhaven.co.uk about details of the free training course.