Determined to eradicate domestic abuse

The documentary, Her Majesty: Behind Closed Doors, followed The Queen across the last year, a time in which she visited Swindon Domestic Abuse Support Service (SWA/SDASS) and heard directly from the teams responsible for working with young people and perpetrators to educate and prevent reoffending.   It can be watched on catch up on ITV X

Kate Rowland, Interim CEO for SWA/SDASS, welcomed the programme, explaining: “The documentary highlighted alarming figures on the extent of domestic abuse within our society, including that two women a week are killed as a result of domestic abuse and that 25% of girls aged 13-17 have experienced the use of physical force in a relationship.  However, we weren’t surprised to hear the brave and harrowing survivor stories included in the programme; every day women and men across Swindon tell us similar accounts of the abuse they’ve experienced.  As shown in the documentary domestic abuse affects people of all ages and from all walks of life and we are hearing from increasing numbers of young people who are experiencing abuse within their relationships.

“When The Queen visited us earlier this year, she was very interested to hear about what we’re doing to combat domestic abuse.  She spoke with our teams across our Open2Change programme, which works with perpetrators to prevent reoffending, and our HOPE programme, that works across schools to educate young people to understand what makes a healthy relationship and hopefully prevent them entering an abusive relationship in the future.

“As The Queen said in the documentary, “what if it had been my daughter?” and that’s how we need everyone to approach this as with domestic abuse affecting approximately 1 in 5 people in the UK, at some point it could be our daughters or sons that this is happening to.

“The true extent of domestic abuse in our society is alarming as much still goes unspoken but there’s no shame in being a victim or a survivor.  Our goal is to create a society without domestic abuse and we can only do this by stopping the silence too.  Across Swindon we have community and business ambassadors who are talking about the issue and are able to show people where to find support. By speaking openly about abuse we can go a long way to reduce and remove the stigma.  Like The Queen, we want to obliterate domestic abuse and we believe it can be achieved through conversation, education, early intervention and prevention.”

If you need advice for yourself or a friend relating to Domestic Abuse, call Swindon’s domestic abuse helpline on 01793 610610.

For more information on SWA/SDASS, visit www.swadomesticabuse.co.uk