Help Abused Young Women get Justice in Leeds

Hello all,

We would like to say a big thank you for the support you have given our charity this year and wish you a very Happy Christmas.

This year we are celebrating 45 years since we opened our first women’s refuge and over the past year, we’ve provided support for thousands of women and families experiencing domestic violence and abuse. We can only do this work because of the generosity of our supporters.

Celebrating 45 Years of Services

As you may know, 2018 has marked 45 years since Leeds Women’s Aid opened the first women’s refuge in Leeds. This was the second refuge in the country and the first outside of London.

Over the past 45 years, the charity has continued to provide safe refuge accommodation and other vital support services for women and children in Leeds who have been affected by domestic violence and abuse.

Leeds Women’s Aid was integral in the development of the national Women’s Aid movement and the second ever national conference was held in Leeds in 1975 where Women’s Aid was formed.

In order to mark this occasion, we held a supporters event in Leeds in October which was attended by many of our amazing supporters, staff, volunteers and trustees and our patron Rachel Reeves MP.

New Leeds Women’s Aid Website

One of the highlights of this important year for our charity was launching our new website. We are delighted to share our new website with you which launched over the summer.

Please check out the new website if you haven’t already and let us know your thoughts: www.leedswomensaid.org.uk

How You Can Support Us

Here are just a few ways you can help us to continue to protect women and children from domestic violence and abuse:

Make a monthly donation by setting up a direct debit through localgiving.org/charity/leedswomensaid/

• Donate essential items such as toiletries, non perishable food and clothing for our refuges.
• Organise your own fundraising activity on our behalf. Whether it’s an event or a sponsored challenge, we’ll help you plan your fundraising and give you support along the way.
• Have a collection box in your workplace. We’ll contact you every few months to check if the box needs changing and arrange a collection and drop off point.
• Donate to us through Payroll Giving. Payroll Giving is a flexible scheme which allows anyone who pays UK income tax to give regularly and on a tax free basis to the charity of their choice.

If you would like more information about any of these support methods, please contact us on 0113 244 2578 or alice@leedswomensaid.org.uk

Christmas Card Appeal

With Christmas approaching, we are asking our supporters to help fund our vital support services by making a donation to our charity instead of sending Christmas cards.

To take part, simply follow the link to our appeal page and help raise the vital funds we need to support women and families this Christmas.

You can donate to our appeal here: https://localgiving.org/appeal/lwachristmascardappeal/

Once you’ve donated, you can email us on alice@leedswomensaid.org.uk to request a copy of our Christmas message design which we’ll send over for you to email out to your family and friends or share on social media instead of sending cards.

Thank you for your support and I’ll be in touch again soon,

Nik

Summer 2018

I am delighted to be CEO of Leeds Women’s Aid in its celebratory 45^th Year of Services. Since 1973 when a group of feminist activists persuaded Leeds City Council to allow us to rent a property (at a peppercorn rate) so that women experiencing domestic violence might have somewhere safe to live, LWA has gone from strength to strength. We are now the largest women’s charity in Leeds and have worked with thousands of women and children across our services and lead on 2 consortia projects. I am proud of our achievements and services, staff and volunteers, trustees and service users.

Best wishes,
Nik Peasgood

An Exciting Year for Leeds Women's Aid

2018 is an important year for Leeds Women’s Aid. Not only is it 45 years since we opened our first women’s refuge, we've also launched our new website this summer and we’ll be marking our anniversary by hosting an extra special supporter’s event this October. Over the past 45 years we've provided safe refuge accommodation for thousands of women and children in Leeds. Have a look at our timeline to discover some of our key milestones.

1973 – Although LWA formed in 1972, our 1st refuge was opened in Burley by a group of women activists in 1973 with the help of Leeds City Council. This was the 1st women’s refuge in Leeds and the 1st in the UK outside of London.

1990 - LWA was now the biggest women’s refuge in the country with places for women and children across three sites.

1994 - HALT was set up as a pilot project in Leeds to provide practical and legal help, support and advocacy to victims of domestic abuse.

2006 - Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) began in Leeds. A MARAC is a victim focused information sharing and risk management meeting attended by all key agencies, where high risk cases are discussed.

2011 - Leeds Domestic Violence Service was formed by LWA, Behind Closed Doors and HALT to deliver the local authority’s community based Domestic Violence and Abuse contracted services in partnership for the first time.

2015 - The Leeds Women’s Aid Charity Shop was officially opened by our patron Rachel Reeves MP.

2016 - Women’s Lives Leeds was launched as a unique partnership between 12 women and girls organisations in Leeds, including LWA as the lead partner. This is funded by the Big Lottery Women and Girls Initiative for 4 years.

2017 - LWA merged with HALT making us the biggest women’s organisation in Leeds and enabling us to offer a wider range of improved services.

2018 – Leeds Women’s Aid celebrates 45th years of providing refuge and other services.

Support Us

We rely on the generosity of our supporters to help fund our domestic violence and abuse support services. If you can make a donation to help us continue our vital work, you can donate online through GlobalGiving and our website www.leedswomensaid.org.uk

You can also donate items to our charity shop and refuges. Have a look at our website to find out more about which items you can donate.

We’re currently looking for volunteers to assist the manager with the daily running of the shop. If you can spare a few hours a week, please contact Harriet on 0113 258 4111 or email LWACharityShop@leedswomensaid.org.uk

Hi again,

I just wanted to start by saying thanks for reading our project reports; we submit our reports to GlobalGiving every 3 months as part of our agreement, and they send them on to you if you have said you would be happy to subscribe; if at any time you don't want to then you can unsubscribe from GlobalGiving.

We've had a busy time getting ready for the new data protection law "GDPR" which I'm sure you have all heard about through hundreds of emails asking you to re-subscribe. We take data protection and people's information really seriously and keep everyone's data confidential and secure. We have revised all of our consent and privacy statements and are confident that we are compliant. Please give us any feedback if you are concerned.

This year we are celebrating that it is 45 years since Leeds Women's Aid's first refuge was opened. Since 1973 when a group of feminist activists persuaded Leeds City Council to allow us to rent a property (at a peppercorn rate) so that women experiencing domestic violence might have somewhere safe to live, becoming the first refuge in the country outside of London, LWA has gone from strength to strength. We merged with HALT in 2017 and are now the largest women’s charity in Leeds (if not Yorkshire) and have worked with thousands of women and children across our services and lead on 2 consortia projects. I am proud of our achievements and services, staff and volunteers, trustees and service users.

In 2003 we were one of the first refuges to obtain funding for the development of a young peoples and childrens service and have had a good relationship with Children in Need since. Also, we worked with the young woman who was the first person in Yorkshire to obtain a Forced Marriage injunction. 

We were offering vital support, help and refuge to young women in the Yorkshire Ripper times in the 1970s and 1980s and since then have gone from strength to strength, working with over 20,000 people.

Your support, both monetary and in kind, is so valuable to us and means more than ever. We work tirelessly to support young women and girls at risk and will continue to develop our services to help more people.

Thanks and I'll be in touch again soon,

Nik

Hello again on a lovely bright spring afternoon, although this morning created chaos in Leeds with unexpected snow! We are celebrating International Women's Day (IWD) here with millions of women and men around the globe; acknowledging and thanking many amazing women for the contributions they have made.

This day, and this worldwide acknowledgement of IWD, is really important for our work and for the young women and girls we work with. They have expreinced the most horrendous violation of their human rights, abuse by people who should love and protect them, and their self esteem is probably at their lowest.

They need to know that there is hope for them, that girls and women aren't just there to be used and abused, and that no matter who they are, where they are from and what has happened to them, they can move from 'victim' to 'survivor' and people will celebrate the achievements that they will make for their future, and for future generations.

Your ongoing support to our work, is vitally important. We are ethical, professional and work really hard to approrpriately support women and girls in the best way we can.

We raise awareness when we can, we support when we can, and we celebrate achievements when we can!

This year, we are 45 years old! We have numerous things on going to celebrate this work, and would like you to stay invovled with us in some way.

We'll be having a huge 45th anniversary in October, and if you, as a valued supporter, would like to attend, then please contact us to discuss. Please email nik@leedswomensaid.org.uk.

We are also working with an amazing woman who makes clay and 'serves' tea. She has handmade 100 lotus flower tealight holders and will donate to us a percentage of any that are sold. Please see these on http://www.teaclaylove.com/index.php/love-peace

So going forwards, please follow us on @leedswomensaid and here's to hoping that our work won't be needed in another 45 years time!

Hello everyone,

It's that time again, something we look forward to and dread in equal amounts! The joy and friendship of Christmas festivities, whatever your views, religions and values, Christmas-time gives us all the opportunity to come together and thank each other for support, help and work done; share stories of a successes and challenges of the year; and to look fowards together to the next year.

Whether you indiviudually have some time off over christmas, whether you are like some of our refuge staff who work all over christmas and new year (including Christmas Day and New Years Day), offering a life line to vulnerable women and children, or whether you give your time gladly and freely to family, friends or those less fortunate than yourselves, just remember to take some time (even if it's small) for yourself to thank yourself, reflect on your personal achievements, and consider what you want from the year ahead.

For us at Leeds Women's Aid incorporating HALT we will be working all the way through Christmas and new year and it doesn't stop. Unfortunately abuse of women and girls does not end, just because we hope that the world will come together in joy and happiness over the festive period. We will see an increase in referrals over Christmas; and the new year will see more people than ever reporting to the police, contacting our 24-hour services, and needing support to stay safe and go to court.

Our workers, both paid and unpaid, are stars in our eyes. They put our clients first and will try, whatever the weather, circumstances or time of day, to be there unconditionally.

At this time of year I would like to reach out and say a massive thank you to you - our donors and people who have supported our work - to our funders and stakeholders, and to our staff and volunteers for their remarkable work.

Many thanks and all the very best for a great 2018!

Nik :)