Following the recent awarding of a contract to run Sexual Assault Referral Centres in the West Midlands to private sector giant G4S, Aurora New Dawn have launched a petition to highlight the danger to victims and survivors of privatising specialist support services.

Chief Executive of Aurora New Dawn, Shonagh Dillon, released the following statement:

“It is essential that sexual assault referral centres and services for those experiencing violence and abuse are recognised for being specialist areas.

We believe that the contracting out of these services to the private sector limits the involvement of the expertise in the area meaning that the complexities of the needs of survivors of violence and abuse will go unmet.

We believe this is about money not support.

Not-for-profit organisations in the violence against women sector aim for results for the survivor before results for the government’s pocket.

Please sign in support of all survivors and the specialist services that work for them.”

SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION HERE.

Follow this story here:

New Statesman, Alan White : ‘Rape cannot be monetised’: Outsourcing and housing for asylum-seekers

Kazuri Homes: ‘G4S – Fit for Purpose or a Public Liability?’

Guardian, Alan Travis: G4S contract to run sexual assault referral centres damned

UPDATE: 2 July 2013

We have received a response from NHS England about our petition, which is now closed. Download and read the full response below and read coverage of this story from our Writer in Residence over at Women’s Views on News.

NHS England G4S SARC petition

 

Approximately 200 people flocked to Portsmouth Football Club for a night of eating, drinking, dancing and merry-making – all in the fantastic cause of raising money to support victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

A range of games throughout the evening raised awareness of the complex reality of violence against women and girls (VAWG), hidden violence and gender-based violence.

A Special Auction gave rise to some incredible donations to Aurora New Dawn with guests bidding for a wide range of fantastic gifts, including an Albert Square street sign signed by the cast of Eastenders, a professional race-driving session at Silverstone, and acting lessons with Doctors actor, Matt Chambers.

Chair of the Board, Sally Jackson, Aurora patron Lauren Jarron, and Chief Executive Shonagh Dillon gave speeches throughout the evening about different aspects of Aurora’s work and its importance as part of the global fight against VAWG and the ongoing struggle for equality and gender justice.

Patron Lauren Jarron explained the increasing importance for the voluntary sector of finding pioneering partnerships with private sector organisations looking for innovative ways to improve or expand the remit for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):

“There is a strong synergy between Aurora’s mission and my beliefs, which is why I am so happy to be involved their work.  I believe every individual has a right to a future.  

 

Aurora aims to “End discrimination against women through offering protection, safety, support and empowerment” and I want to empower women to realise their true potential – to have a positive impact for themselves, and for society – culturally and economically.” 

 

Chair of the Board of Aurora New Dawn, Sally Jackson, highlighted Aurora’s work in the context of the global struggle of women for equality and justice.

Chief Executive Shonagh Dillon gave the closing speech before officially opening the dancefloor for the night, with a powerful reminder of why everyone came together at the Ball:

2 women every week die as a direct result of domestic violence and abuse. Two women. Every week.

 

It’s hard to connect with when it’s a faceless statistic, isn’t it? But look around the room with me for a second. Now imagine that if all of us met again here next week, two women would be gone. The following week two women more. The week after, two women more.

 

How long would it take before there were no women left in the room?

 

How many women would need to disappear before we were all shouting about it to the world?

 

Two women disappear from the lives of their friends and loved ones every week. But instead of disappearing from this room, they are disappearing from the UK.

 

A specially commissioned poem, Aurora, was read by Writer in Residence, which you can read here.

The first ever Butterfly Ball raised an incredible £7,000 for Aurora New Dawn. This money is already being used to fund the every day organisational costs of Aurora, providing the infrastructure that supports our frontline service delivery.

In this increasingly difficult funding climate, organisational costs are becoming more of a challenge for the voluntary sector as a whole, due to the fact that grant funding is often awarded on a project-by-project basis.

This means our fundraising activities are becoming more and more important to enable the daily support services (admin, management, and finance, for example) that allow our frontline workers to support victims and survivors.

“These are difficult times for the voluntary sector as a whole, and particularly for VAWG services due to the disproportionate impact of the government’s cuts programme on women, and particularly on specialist services supporting victims and survivors,” said Shonagh.

“It’s really no exaggeration to say that we couldn’t survive without our supporters, and this has made the success of our first ever fundraising Ball particularly poignant for me, and for our frontline Advocates. We owe everyone who supported the Ball a huge ‘Thank you!'”

We are delighted to report that the Leader of Portsmouth City Council has contacted us following yesterday’s news reports and our letter to the Cabinet to reassure us that the nil cap on SEVs will not be overturned.

Cllr Vernon-Jackson said:

“I’m sorry that there has been a misunderstanding of this. In the budget we have to look not only at cuts but also where more income may come from. My understanding is that there are currently 3 SEVs in Portsmouth but our past budgets had assumed money from just 2. In the budget that was passed yesterday we just adjusted the figures to expect a fee to come from 3 – as is now the case. This meant we could avoid other cuts but there is no expectation of any more SEVs in Portsmouth.”

We’re very glad to hear it.

We’ve written back to the Leader for a bit more clarity on the current status of lap dancing clubs in the city and how future licensing will equate to a saving of £8000.

In addition we’ve asked the Leader if he can clarify a couple of issues we noticed yesterday while preparing our letter to the Cabinet:

• The minutes from the Council meeting last October on the future licensing of lap-dancing clubs is missing from the Council’s website and we’d like to know why, and when we can expect them to be published for the public record
• We’d also like to know the current status of the Draft SEV Licensing Policy for the city, which according to the website currently remains in draft, and when this might be officially formalised

 

We’ll keep you informed as soon as we hear, but in the meantime, it’s worth remembering that our statement to Cllrs yesterday remains true:

“…let’s be clear as to why Aurora New Dawn is in favour of the nil cap.

We work, every day, with the end result of socially entrenched sexism, namely the victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

In the national and international women’s sector of which we are part, there is no doubt that the sexual objectification of women – as practiced in both page 3 and lapdancing clubs – is directly linked to the incidence of sexual and domestic violence.

This is not a matter of opinion or conjecture.

The link between the objectification of women and discrimination and violence towards women is recognised at an international level by the legally binding United Nations Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which has repeatedly called upon states – including the UK – to take action against the objectification of women.

We believe that one day, the world will look back on the routine custom of objectifying and commodifying women as a bizarre and fundamentally inhumane practice – just as we currently look back at the slave trade or the practice of sending children up chimneys.”

We hope that day is getting closer and we hope that Portsmouth City Council continues to work towards a society where no one – man, woman or child – can be bought and sold as a commodity.

For one night in Portsmouth, we came, we chanted and we made the streets safe for women.

And what a night it was.

This year’s march saw over 250 women, men and children taking to the streets, carrying some of the best banners we’ve seen so far and without doubt, the best dancing. Special mention for White Ribbon volunteers Yaz and Corina, who led the march with some of the best dance moves we’ve seen in quite some time.

While we’re on the subject of credit where it’s due, massive thanks go to Batala for setting the pace of the march with their signature drumming, to all our speakers and performers and to the ever-faithful band of White Ribbon volunteers whose combined efforts make the event possible.

But of course, our biggest thanks go to everyone who attended – because it’s you that make the difference by shouting out that Pompey will not commit, condone or stay silent about violence against women and girls.

This was our fourth march, but the second year White Ribbon has celebrated local activism with its Outstanding Achievement Award. And the winner was Solent Feminist Network – a group comprised entirely of volunteers who have led on and supported some of 2011/12’s biggest campaigns against VAWG.

This year also saw a special award to our very own Chief Executive, Shonagh Dillon – in recognition of many years of activism, campaigning and hard work to make sure the voices of victims and survivors are heard.

The march closed with a fantastic pledge from the night’s compere, actor Kirsty Dillon: “Next year we want the march to be even bigger and even louder – we’re aiming for 1000 marchers to fill the Guildhall Square.”

If you’re not sure whether to be one of them, check out this video and make up your mind.

Convinced? Good. See you in 2013!

It’s that time of year again, when hundreds of Portsmouth men, women and children are taking to the streets to end domestic and sexual violence as the city gears up for its 3^rd annual Reclaim the Night march on 23^rd November, which kicks off at 7pm at the Spinnaker Tower.

This year’s march is going to be loud and proud, so get ready to shout!

We’re also asking marchers to wear something white or purple to show your solidarity with victims and survivors.

Local drumming group, Batala, will be leading the march, which will end with a rally in the Guildhall Square featuring local musicians El Morgan and Steph Arburrow.

Reclaim the Night is a symbolic march that brings together women, men and children to enable women to reclaim public space in safety and raise awareness about the high levels of violence against women in the UK and across the world.

Aurora works with victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence every day and we know the challenges they face just to come forward and seek help in the first place. Events like Reclaim the Night show on a local level that victims are not alone and there are people out there who can help.

It’s the one night a year in Portsmouth when women are guaranteed to be able to walk in safety through our streets.

Organisers say this year’s march is even more important due to funding cuts affecting local services.

In February 2011, the Safer Portsmouth Partnership launched a review of domestic abuse, stating it was “as a result of changes to funding regimes and service restructures forced by cuts to public service budgets”. In addition, local services for victims and survivors are reporting significant funding cuts, as well as increased competition for existing funding.

What can we do about this?

Well apart from getting your shout on at the march, Aurora are developing a report for all the services working with victim and survivors in the city. It will outline an alternative approach for Portsmouth to ensure the cuts – and the increased pressure on people in a recession – do not combine to turn the clock back for victims and survivors of violence and abuse, or for women more generally, in terms of combating discrimination and providing opportunity.

It’s never been more important to show our support as a city for victims and survivors of violence.

According to research commissioned by the Safer Portsmouth Partnership, domestic violence is the largest common motivator for violent crimes across Portsmouth, but only a low number of incidents currently result in a court case. In addition, levels of sexual violence in Portsmouth have risen since 2010/11.

Portsmouth has a great track record for supporting victim and survivors. Whilst it’s a very real challenge to the sector to make sure these vital services survive in the current economy, the reality is that we simply can’t allow the last ten years of progress to be reversed.

Our CEO, Shonagh says: “This year it’s even more important that local people take to the streets and Reclaim the Night – we need to shout out our support for victims and survivors and say a loud ‘No’ to perpetrators and the social attitudes and structures that help to create and protect them.”

Are you with us Pompey? We’re coming to take back the streets!

This article appeared originally on Women’s Views on News.

I listened with a howling sense of pain-wracked frustration to the otherwise fabulous Jane Garvey interviewing domestic abuse survivor Tina Nash on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour yesterday morning (interview begins 1 minute in).

I’m used to victim-blaming and its ugly companion, the invisible perpetrator, in mainstream media coverage of domestic abuse.

But I’ve noticed it more and more since I became a Writer in Residence for Aurora New Dawn, an organisation working with victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

Mainstream news media often just replicate dominant social attitudes and reflect them back to us with authority. It’s not right, or actually ok, but it’s the reason WVoN exists so I’ve made a sort of angry, activist peace with it. For now.

Listening this morning, though, I felt like Jane Garvey’s feminist teacher, standing on the sidelines and calling, “Come on Garvey, pull your socks up! You can do better than this!”

Here’s why.

I recommend that you listen to the interview before or after reading this. For me the questions are actually worse in context not better, but make up your own mind.

JG: It would be easy to think of you I suppose as a victim, but you’re more than that, aren’t you?

TN: I’m a survivor now.

This would have been a great opportunity to talk about the issue of victimhood, the journey to feeling like a survivor and the difference between the two. Nash herself brings this up several times in the interview after she raises it here.

She talks about how she did not perceive herself as a victim during the abuse even though it was so severe, and about how on many occasions Jenkin, her abuser, would convince her that he was actually the victim in the relationship.

Garvey follows up on none of these.

If you’re learning about domestic abuse for the first time, understanding the dynamic  of victimhood is central. But if you’re a broadcaster doing an interview about an abusive relationship, I would hope – with a little preparation and research – it would be Interviewing 101.

After asking how they met, Garvey begins to sound a little like a barrister building a case that the victim should have ‘known better’:

JG: …he was a man with a bit of a reputation.

Nash obligingly clarifies that she had heard of his reputation, yes, but 10 years before they began dating, at which point Jenkin portrayed himself very much as a changed man.

Four months into the relationship, Jenkin pushed Nash over after his violence to strangers in a nightclub caused him to be thrown out. She banged her head on the pavement. Nash packed www.orderwu.com her things and left.

JG: See, at this point Tina, people will be thinking, ‘Well, that would be enough’. He may not actually have hit you on that occasion but there were indications that this was a man you wouldn’t be close to for any length of time. Why did you keep in touch with him?

Later, Nash talks about Jenkin laughing at the panic room installed for her by the police.

JG: He was laughing at the authorities and…but…in a way Tina I’ve got to put it to you, you allowed him to do that because you kept buying his lost little boy routine, didn’t you?

Finally, Garvey asks a question that is made more offensive to me as a listener by the calm, dignified and eloquent answer given by Tina Nash following it.

JG: For the people listening who think ‘Why did she allow this to happen to her?’ how would you try to explain that?

TN: It was a steady progress, it didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t like I met him on the first night and he hit me and I stayed with him. It didn’t happen like that. I fell in love with him. He made me see a side of him that I didn’t think other people got to see so I thought he must love me. I thought it was completely different with me than he was with everybody else. Silly me, I fell for it.

At this point, I genuinely don’t know how, as one human to another, Garvey felt no inclination to challenge Tina Nash on that last statement. Possibly because almost every question that led up to it has implicitly pointed to how Nash failed to identify, challenge and escape a man who is now serving an indeterminate sentence in a mental hospital. I assume a jury put him there because they had fewer problems than Jane Garvey in identifying that he was the one to blame for his own behaviour.

Instead, Garvey asks:

JG: How many chances did you give him, in fact?

At which point I face-palmed myself so hard I swept my own feet out from under me and fell on my ass.

Given everything we know about domestic abuse, about patterns of coercion and control and about the reality of living – and surviving – an abusive relationship, it’s disappointing that broadcasters still feel comfortable asking variations of: Why doesn’t she just leave?

Chats overheard in the pub? Yes.

Woman’s Hour? No.

Interviews like this not only remove the focus from Jenkin’s actions but also – and if I were a man, this would be far more offensive to me – position the extreme violence of men like Jenkin as inevitable, or somehow to be expected, from all men.

What would I like to have heard? More about what it’s like to make the journey from victim to survivor, for a start, and an acknowledgement of the difficulty of the transition between the two.

Shame, isolation and self-blame are reasons that the Aurora team hear every day from victims and survivors to describe why they feel powerless to leave their perpetrator.

Of course, they also work with victims and survivors who have left and are now in more danger than they have ever been in before as a result – another reason why so many victims stay.

Media coverage of domestic abuse must start to reveal the reality (linked video carries Trigger warning) – and complexity – of abusive relationships, including painting a picture of how commonly it happens. As writers and journalists, we must shift the focus away from victims and move toward asking questions about perpetrators, who might find themselves with fewer places to hide as a result.

Taking this approach in the media would help to build a society where victims feel less isolated and less ashamed of behaviour that, ultimately, isn’t theirs. That alone would go an incredible length of the way to making the journey out of an abusive relationship easier and quicker.

After our highly impressive results when trying our hand at wheelchair basketball earlier this year, we  were keen to build on our legacy of extreme sports.

So off to the dragonboat races went The Perpinators – a team of men, women and children raising money for Aurora New Dawn

Let’s be clear from the start that dragonboat racing takes a lot of co-ordination, stamina and enthusiam.

Suffice to say that The Perpinators overflowed with stamina and enthusiasm…

…but the coordination was another matter.

You wouldn’t think that coordinating a team of about 16 rowers would be that hard, would you?

We didn’t.

Turns out we were all wrong – it really is that hard.

We didn’t make it through to the finals, but we certainly didn’t come last – unlike our attempt at wheelchair basketball.

We’re taking this as an enormous step forward.

Next stop, the Great South Run, where some of the Aurora team will be raising money for us.

Don’t forget, if you’re interested in taking part in any of Aurora’s events, drop us in line on 023 9247 9254 or email us at info@aurorand.org.uk

Giving up their time for an incredibly good cause, Hampshire firefighters and local students joined Aurora staff, trustees and supporters in a wheelchair basketball tournament that none would forget.

With runners, badminton players and yoga enthusiasts on our team, the Aurora New Dawn are no strangers to sports.

Yet we were completely unprepared for this.

In case you didn’t know, folks, wheelchair basketball is hard.

We mean, it’s really hard.

It’s hard to roll and hold the ball at the same time, which meant some of us (Chief Exec, we’re talking to you) clamped the ball under our chins to leave our hands free to roll the wheels.

It’s hard to shoot the ball into the basket from a sitting position, particularly if you’re already vertically Coinstar point challenged (Writer in Residence, we’re talking to you).

And it’s particularly hard to move your wheelchair anywhere when someone is holding on to the back of it (Hampshire Fire & Rescue, we’re talking to you).

Despite this, we fought through our inexperience in the sport with courage and determination, and we won!

OK, we’re lying, we didn’t win. Actually, we came last, but wait til next time. We’ll be ready.

A massive, massive thank you to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service for organising the tournament and for kindly donating the proceeds to Aurora New Dawn, and a huge thank you to everyone who took part on the day – we had an amazing time.

UPDATE: And we even made The News!