Women in Refuge
SWA recognise the enormously, brave decision women make to come into refuge. Our refuges offer a calm, supportive, and therapeutic space for you and your children. Our team of experienced practitioners are aware of the impact domestic abuse has, and our priority will be to offer an immediate place of safety and support for you and your children to feel physically and emotionally safe.
When you first arrive in refuge you will be allocated a dedicated key worker who will work with you, at your own pace and provide support as you work through your experiences and begin to plan the next steps forward for you and your children.
We recognise that everyone is an individual and will need different support; our team can help you in a wide range of areas including:
Accessing welfare benefits / independent finances.
Registering with new GP and Dental surgeries.
Support to get to know the local area.
Accessing support physical and mental health needs.
Being an advocate for you with other agencies such as the Police and Social Care.
Supporting you to access housing.
Preparing for move on.
Accessing legal support.
Support with immigration issues.
Other support needs that you identify.
We also work with other organisations and services to provide additional support to the work SWA does, which includes; Sheffield MIND, Citizens Advice Bureaux, Shelter and Paradigm, all of whom attend the refuges weekly.
We want you to feel safe and secure whilst living in our refuges, and to receive good quality support. Our lead practitioners make sure they audit how support is being delivered to you so that if there are areas we can improve upon then we do!
You will be allocated a dedicated refuge practitioner to work with you directly, but you can rely on all of our staff to support you.
For survivors with children, we have dedicated support for children, for more information see our dedicated “Children in Refuge” Page.
Contact Us
mail@sheffieldwomensaid.org.uk