SAFE Ireland urgently needs your support to continue our work for the elimination of domestic violence in Ireland. We have launched our 250 Fundraising Campaign urging 1,000 people or businesses to each donate €250 to SAFE Ireland, in order to stay open and continue our work in 2012.

If you or someone you know can afford to donate €250 or more to SAFE Ireland we would greatly appreciate it.

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All donations to local domestic violence services are also welcome. Please click here for details of our member’s services if you want to donate directly to your local service.

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AIB, Johns Street, Kells. Co Meath
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Account number: 15615018
IBAN No: IE 34 AIBK 93253115615018
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Address: SAFE Ireland, 27 Church Street, Athlone, Co. Westmeath

SAFE Ireland is the trading name for NNWRSS Ltd which is a company limited by guarantee which has charitable status.

Registered Company no: 291205
Registered Charity no: CHY 13064

For more information about what we do click here >>

First Safe Ireland Week asks family and friends to know the signs and be informed about how they can help someone living with abuse.

Nearly 30% of women attending Safe Ireland domestic violence services said that they had heard about the service first from a family member or friend.

Launching the first Safe Ireland Week, which runs from tomorrow, December 5 to December 11, Director Sharon O’Halloran said that an evaluation of the experiences of women attending Safe Ireland domestic violence services confirmed that family and friends were crucial lifelines in helping women escape violence.

The outcome evaluation also found that a smaller percentage of women reported that they had heard about the service from professional sources like a social worker (13%), GPs or nurses (11%) or the Gardaí (6%). Over nine out of ten of the women who responded to the outcome evaluation said that they in turn would strongly recommend the service to a friend.

Safe Ireland is the national organisation for 40 frontline domestic violence services.

“Women have told us about the crucial role of friends and family in helping them find safety,” said Sharon O’Halloran, Director of Safe Ireland. “Too often, however, even if friends and family suspect an abusive relationship and they want to help, they are not sure if they should intervene, or how to intervene.”

“Education and information for those closest to a woman at risk of abuse is absolutely essential. We all need to know, firstly, that we can help, and then, how we can best provide that help so that the woman finds safety.”

She urged people to download the Safe Ireland iphone app which provides advice on recognising possible abuse and tips on what to do to help a friend if and when that help is needed. Information is also available on safeireland.ie.

The information campaign will be backed up by radio ads as well as ads and take-away advice cards located in shopping centres over the Christmas period.

Sharon O’Halloran, Director of SAFE Ireland welcomed the invitation saying that “it is an acknowledgement of the need for leadership on the issue of domestic violence in Ireland.” She praised the President for standing with women “in this very early part of his journey”.

“Thousands of women are weeping silently in their homes because of domestic violence every day, we are calling for new leadership, serious commitments and new responses from our government. We can be global leaders in eliminating domestic violence from our lives and our communities,” she continued.

The visit is a follow on from a commitment made by President Higgins to a safer Ireland for women and children when he spoke at a special presidential campaign debate called Now You’re Talking (about domestic abuse).

Safe Ireland will also launch the first Safe Ireland Week, which will run from December 5th to December 10th next. Continuing the Now You’re Talking theme, the week will focus on the important difference neighbours, family and friends can make if they know or suspect that someone they know is living in an abusive relationship.

More images from the event:

For more information contact:

Caitriona Gleeson: 087 2037177 or 0906 479078

Email: info@safeireland.ie

Safe Ireland’s one-day census for November 4th 2010 showed that 555 women and 324 children were accommodated or received support from a domestic violence service in just one day.

When broken down, this means that 23 women and 13 children – or 36 people in total – looked for support every hour of that day.

Called “And Just Another Day”, Safe Ireland’s third annual census for the same date revealed that 108 women were accommodated in refuge, 98 women were in transitional housing and the remaining 349 women accessed a range of one-to-one or group support services. Eighteen women could not be accommodated in refuge because there was not enough space. 140 called a helpline.

The census formed the introduction to “Now You’re Talking”, the first of a series of national conversations on domestic violence with the presidential candidates, chaired by RTE presenter Miriam O’Callaghan. Candidates presented their vision for a safer Ireland for women and children.

Sharon O’Halloran, Director of Safe Ireland, said there had to be leadership and a complete systems overhaul so that the needs of women and children were put centre-stage. At present, she said, women and children were feeling the brunt of statutory agency policies that were often about saving money over safety.

“We have to go beyond numbers, to acknowledge that each statistic represents a crime against a woman, a mother, an expectant mother, a toddler or a teenager, each living with fear, brutality and uncertainty in their own homes,” she said.

“The burden of the ongoing evidence about the enormity of domestic violence means that we must all act – quickly, with responsibility and unwaivering commitment. This action and commitment has to begin with those in leadership – our President and our politicians.”

The 24-hour census showed that while the majority of the women were Irish (78%) the overall number represented women from over 35 nationalities. The majority (70%) of the women were between 16 and 45, with 36% between 16 and 35 years and 34% between 35 and 45.

Annual statistics for 2010, released a few weeks ago, showed that, in total, 7,235 women and 2,850 children received support from a Safe Ireland member service.

Over the coming month, Safe Ireland will run an on-line Now You’re Talking campaign to encourage people to download its App.

Download the Full Report here (7.1Mb)

The event will be chaired by Miriam O’Callaghan and also includes the launch of the SAFE Ireland annual One Day Census of Domestic Violence Services. The event will take place on Wednesday 19th of October, at 11am in the Davenport Hotel, Merrion Street, Dublin 2.

All are welcome, so book your place in to attend this important conversation by contacting info@safeireland.ie or phoning 0906 479078.

Follow this event on Facebook here »

Join the conversation on Twitter here » #nowyourtalking

Women and children looking for safety could not be accommodated on over 3,000 occasions in 2010 because domestic violence refuges were either full or unavailable in an area – over 700 occasions more or a massive 38% increase on 2009 figures.

Throughout the year, 7,235 women received support from domestic violence services. Of these, 1,545 women along with 2,355 children lived in refuge for various periods of time and women made an average of over 100 calls a day – 38,629 calls in total – to all helplines throughout the country.

Releasing its National Statistics on Domestic Violence 2010, Safe Ireland said that the latest figures proved that existing services had reached tipping point. Safe Ireland is the national organisation for 39 frontline domestic violence services.

The 2010 statistics show a levelling off in overall numbers of women and children receiving support from domestic violence services since 2009 (there was a 1% increase from 7,171 to 7,235 women). However, the real picture is that a continuing trend upwards is now spilling into an emergency accommodation crisis and a spike in distressed telephone calls, explained Sharon O’Halloran, SAFE Ireland Director.

“The devil is in the detail,” she said. “The real pressure points are being seen in the number of times women cannot be accommodated immediately. These women and their children are the tragic fall out of Ireland’s abject and consistent failure to meet European minimum requirements for refuge.”

“When a woman leaves her house with her children, often in the middle of the night, she should expect to be accommodated safely behind the first door she knocks on. While accommodation is found for all women who come to a refuge, if it is not immediately available, it only prolongs the stress and anxiety of the situation.”

Ireland has just one third of the refuge capacity recommended by the Council of Europe. With budget cutbacks, essential new refuges are not opening and existing refuges are finding it more difficult to maintain their services.

“The other important issue is that refuge accommodation is not just about getting a roof over your head,” O’Halloran continued. “Our refuge and support services are staffed by professionals who have over 30 years experience in providing for the physical, mental and emotional needs of women and children leaving abuse.”

O’Halloran also said that women and children were feeling the brunt of some statutory agency policies that were often about saving money over people’s needs. In order to move on from refuge, for example, she said, women rely on agencies dealing with a range of issues from housing to education or legal issues. The focus on savings means that women are often being left in limbo, unable to move on or rebuild their lives.

Click here to download pdf of Annual Statistics »

Recent research has highlighted the important role of friends and families and a range of professionals in giving information about support services to victims of domestic violence.

We are therefore developing this App for Everyone, we want people to be aware of how they can support someone they do, ways to recognise abuse and ways to maximise the safety of the victim, her children and themselves. We believe that by equipping the Irish population with this important information that we will increase the likelihood of victims of domestic violence being aware of the specialist supports that are freely available across Ireland.

This free App is available to download at the iPhone App Store now.

Here are some screen shots from the App itself.

SAFE Ireland are grateful to COSC and the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government for their funding assistance with our ‘Ways to Support a Friend’ awareness campaign.

A new partnership with Michigan State University, The Gerda Boyesen Institute and SAFE Ireland has been given the approval to commence a potentially groundbreaking research study into healing domestic violence trauma. The clinical trial will test the efficacy of biodynamic psychotherapy in healing trauma linked to domestic violence.

This pilot phase of the study commences in April 2011 and SAFE Ireland with its research partners will analyse the preliminary data over the coming months. Based on these findings and resources the partners hope to conduct a more in depth study towards the end of 2011. The research team is led by Dr Denise Saint Arnault, Associate Professor (College of Nursing) in Michigan State University.

(see http://nursing.msu.edu/facultyprofile.aspx?ID=22)

See www.biodynamic.org for more details about biodynamic psychotherapy

A total of 20,000 cards will be distributed to many display locations where the general public are likely to be attending for information, such as citizen information centres, health centres, Garda stations, court services, workplaces, community centres and so on. The cards are also available on request by contacting SAFE Ireland @ 0906 479078 and by email to info@safeireland.ie. This campaign has been resourced with funding from COSC, the national office for domestic, sexual and gender based violence.

Download the wallet card in PDF format here >> (2.8Mb)

Read More …. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0307/1224291482426.html