Our Work

SAFE Ireland delivers a wide range of programmes in line with our Strategic Plan (2008-2012) which is agreed with our membership. On an annual basis SAFE Ireland’s work plan is developed based on the needs of our members, national policy priorities and the needs identified by women accessing our member services.

We want to see that the needs of women and children experiencing domestic violence are met and that civic society takes responsibility for the eradication of violence against women. We work in collaboration with our members, allies, government departments, state agencies and relevant stakeholders to progress our change agenda.

SAFE Ireland’s core areas of work are as follows:

• Service Development and Direct Service Support
• Evaluation of women’s needs and outcomes
• National representation of the needs of women and service providers
• Training and Professional development with members
• Public Information Provision and Public Awareness Raising
• Research and data collection
• Network capacity building and sustainability

Function of SAFE Ireland

• SAFE Ireland is part of the implementation infrastructure for the delivery of the government strategy on domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
• Enhance service co-ordination with state agencies to maximise safety for women and children and to reduce the prevalence of domestic violence in Ireland.
• SAFE Ireland has a critical role in terms of the sustainability of services, accessibility of services, governance and centralised training initiatives that meet the needs of our members. We are the only central co-ordination body for domestic violence services and we provide a critical link between government departments and our members.
• Domestic violence is a serious issue in Irish society affecting thousands of women every year, in 2009 our member services supported 7,500 women, over 2,500 children, and answered over 33,000 helpline calls. SAFE Ireland has a national social change and service development function. We work to create safety for women and children and to reduce and eliminate domestic violence.

Expected Impacts of SAFE Irelands Work

• Increased access for women and their children who are victims of domestic violence to important information and to domestic violence support services or other appropriate responses.
• Increased understanding of the barriers to women accessing domestic violence services and a clear and more focused response to their needs.
• Increased capacity of member organisations to meet the needs of women and children who experience domestic violence.
• Greater co-ordination and representation across domestic violence services and stronger inter agency links
• Greater support for the roll out of the “whole of government” strategy.
• Clearer response from civic society to the issue of domestic violence and more integrated community responses to the issue of violence in society.
• Greater understanding of the root causes of domestic violence, a clear commitment to working with men to find new solutions to this entrenched issue and roll out of new initiatives to address the complexities as we understand them.