News

Earlier this year, a team from HMP East Sutton Park in Kent took on the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for Refuge. In just three days, Stacey, John, Jo and Matt beat Great Britain’s three highest peaks and raised £3,000 – as if that were not enough, they even found time to write a blog about their adventure. Ben Nevis We began our ascent at 7am after an overnight stop in Carlisle. The track up Ben Nevis mainly consists of rocky steps made for people with exceptionally long legs, which none of us have! Despite our early battles with … Continue reading →

The Corporate Fundraising team has been celebrating a summer of successes led by our fabulous corporate partners – Avon, Benefit, The White Company and Scamp and Dude. Benefit’s Bold is Beautiful Benefit Cosmetics’ Bold is Beautiful campaign raised a staggering £297,603 this year for its two charities Refuge and Look Good Feel Better. This could pay for more than 2,800 nights in a refuge for a woman and her children experiencing domestic violence. Throughout May, Benefit waxed 44,545 eyebrows, raised almost £26,000 across three pink pop-up shops (which saw over 10,000 customers walk through their doors), and head office staff … Continue reading →

From jumping 10,000ft in a tandem skydive to dusting off her walking boots for Walk4, former Hounslow Mayor Sue Sampson surpassed her year-long fundraising target in aid of Refuge, beyond all expectations. Cllr. Sampson, who was Mayor of Hounslow between 2017 and 2018, has long been an active supporter of Refuge; her sister Maureen was fatally shot at her place of work by her estranged husband in 1976, aged just 23 years old. The tragedy happened when Cllr. Sampson was only eight years old and inspired her to later campaign against domestic violence. With Refuge’s 47-year history rooted in Hounslow, … Continue reading →

Refuge is pleased to receive positive feedback from Dr Ravi K.Thiara in her independent evaluation of our services which received funding between 2016-18 under the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Domestic Abuse Fund. The report concluded that the funding – applied for in conjunction with partner local authorities – enabled Refuge to add additional capacity to six of its services and in some cases saved them from closure. Increased staffing capacity led to more support being given to women with a wide range of complex needs, whilst also reducing caseloads of already established teams. All of the … Continue reading →

2018 opened with an amazing show of support from our corporate partners. We have been working on exciting projects in support of women and children with a wide variety of brands, including Venetian restaurateurs Polpo, home improvement retailer Homebase and Bunnings, and the fabulous cosmetics company, Benefit. Read all about the fantastic projects we have been working on below. Bold is Beautiful with Benefit Our Bold is Beautiful (BiB) project, in partnership with Benefit Cosmetics, works to empower women and girls, and has just finished for the fifth year running. BiB supports both the work of Refuge and Look Good … Continue reading →

Ellen* was living in one of our refuges with her two children when her former partner happened to ‘bump into’ them – she had no idea how they had been found. She had recently left him after years of physical abuse, harassment, abusive language and monitoring of her activities, including regularly checking her bank account and building up debt in her name. It was after speaking to her key worker that Ellen realised that he must have accessed her emails via her home computer to track her whereabouts. With the support of her tech advocate, Ellen soon identified other ways … Continue reading →

Our team in Kingston has been busy preparing for our latest IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Advocates) service which opened its doors on 1 April 2018, and will operate alongside our refuge provision in the area, which itself launched in late 2017. The one-stop-shop service will initially offer 150 survivors of abuse IDVA support to navigate the criminal justice system; at Refuge we know from our other services that where our IDVAs support a woman through to the conclusion of a court case, three-quarters of these cases end in guilty verdicts. The new hub in Kingston will offer survivors of domestic … Continue reading →

From selling cakes to scaling buildings and taking part in the world’s largest fundraising event, the Virgin Money London Marathon, #TeamRefuge has done it all! Our amazing supporters have been taking part in events (and organising their own) up and down the country. They have run, jumped, baked and abseiled all in support of Refuge and the women and children we work with every day. Law firm, Family Law Group, presented Kirsty – our Community Fundraising Executive – with a cheque for £9,200 in April, after nominating us as their Charity of the Year. Our #TeamRefuge runners have taken to … Continue reading →

Our Tech Abuse Lead, Demelza Lobb, gave evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee in April 2018 about how Universal Credit can facilitate domestic abuse. Watch the recorded session below.  You can also watch the video on the Parliament.tv website here Video credit: parliament.tv