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Safe Ireland: Invitation to Tender for Website Design Services

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Safe Ireland

Ormond Building | 31-36 Ormond Quay Upper |Dublin D07 EE37 | T: +353 (0) 9064 79078

Closing date for receipt of tenders Wed 1st June 2022

Summary

Safe Ireland invites tender submissions from interested Website Design and Development Service Suppliers to undertake a substantial upgrade of its website safeireland.ie

The contract calls for a process of discovery, design, development and modification and an element of in-house training for staff. It is anticipated that the contract will be completed over a 14-week period with a view to launch on Sept 30th 2022.

Tender Description

Safe Ireland is a national development and coordination body with responsibility for Domestic Violence with four distinct functions: investigating the causes and effects of coercion and violence based on sex, gender and sexuality, particularly against women and against children; delivering frontline refuge, support and outreach services; developing best practice guidelines for skilled community-led domestic violence responses; influencing civil society and national strategic policy. It now seeks a contractor to upgrade its existing website to optimise its functionality for a range of different users and to future-proof its capability for emerging and anticipated new technologies.

It is essential that tender applicants respond to all the specified requirements in the tender document. Applicants must provide a response to all requirements, indicating clearly whether they can support the requirement in full, in part or not at all. The onus is on applicants to present clear and accurate propositions rather than on Safe Ireland to decipher mistakes or to interpret information that is not readily understandable.

A full specification of the contract is detailed in the tender document. Interested suppliers should submit a proposal by email to info@safeireland.ie no later than 5:00pm Wednesday 1st June 2022.

Partnership with National Cyber Security Awareness Task Force

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Safe Ireland are delighted to announce a 12 month collaboration with the National Cyber Security Awareness Task Force.

Cyber Awareness Ireland (CAI) is a national body who research, develop & curate Cyber Security Awareness research and messaging in Ireland. The CAI have established a sub working group that sits within Cyber Awareness Ireland – referred to as the National Cyber Security Awareness Task Force (NCSA-TF).

The NCSA-TF is committed to bringing security professionals together to bolster the Cyber Awareness & Security of the domestic violence sector. Safe Ireland will greatly benefit from the expertise, knowledge and training that the cyber security industry in Ireland has to offer.

The NCSA-TF have committed to delivering on five core strategic areas to increase the safe women and children’s safety, reduce the perpetration of abuse and increase organisational cyber security.

These areas are:

 1. Cyber Security Awareness Maturity and Research

2. Frontline Worker Training on Technology Facilitated Abuse

3. Children & Families Program for Survivors

4. Cyber Security Awareness Raising & Policy Development

5. Accredited Frontline Worker Certification Program

Go Purple Day 2022 Launch

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Safe Ireland is delighted to partner with An Garda Síochána to support the #GoPurple Domestic Violence Awareness Campaign 2022. The campaign was launched today by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee at Athlumney House, Navan, Co. Meath and Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail Damien English with Assistant Garda Commissioner Chief Superintendent David Sheahan also in attendance.

The initiative was created by Community Garda Stacey Looby, Athlone Garda Station to create national awareness of Domestic Violence and to consolidate community partnerships between Domestic Violence Services and An Garda Síochána.

#GoPurple will take place across the country on the 29th of April and we are calling on everyone to show their support by going purple in your home, workplace or community and by donating to your local domestic violence service.

Follow the Instagram event page @purpledvday and share your images using the #GoPurple hashtag on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Safe Ireland Activity Summary 2020

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Safe Ireland present a 3-minute video summarising the activity undertaken by our organisation and its members across the country, to support women experiencing domestic violence during the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020
We wish to thank all of our supporters, along with all the public funders, corporate partners, philanthropists, and thousands of micro donors who made this work possible; as well as the hundreds of women who invested their physical, emotional, and intellectual labour into the manifestation of these projects.
To find a list of the 38 local domestic violence services across the country, or to donate to the work of Safe Ireland visit https://www.safeireland.ie/
To watch the Irish Women In Harmony Dreams video click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv4MYqzg-P4
Subscribe to their YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDOKlmxrY6ZLYeNgST7oW5w
You can find out more about the Community Foundation for Ireland and their Women’s fund click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqba0AyCKzQ

 

How the RTE Toy Show Appeal has been assisting Women and Children to Safety

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For those living in abusive homes, Christmas is a difficult time of year. Women, and children, are particularly vulnerable to increased risk of emotional, physical and financial abuse. Some remain destitute within their homes, whilst others may become destitute upon leaving. All of them place the welfare of their children at the centre of their decision.

Through the RTE Toy Show Appeal, Safe Ireland reached out to many women and children across the country through its network of local Domestic Violence Services. Viewers donations financed a range of immediate needs as well as longer term supports – all of them critical to assisting women and children to safety. Groceries, toiletries, winter coats, car tyres, phone credit and school supplies, enabled many women to leave and alleviated suffering of those that could not. Rental deposits and basic furniture enabled others to move forward on their journey to safety in a new home. Child therapy supports assisted children suffering from the trauma of domestic abuse. The flexibility of the funding empowered frontline support services to respond quickly, and without restriction, to the specific needs of any particular woman. This is invaluable in circumstances where people need to exit unsafe situations unexpectedly.

I was living in lockdown for years before Covid. Bringing the two kids to school and weekly grocery shopping were my only freedoms. When Covid came, they too ended. The kids were off school, he was working from home, and then he took over doing the weekly shopping. Our home was a prison and our lives were a nightmare. When restrictions lifted we fled to a refuge – no money, no documents, just the summer clothes we were wearing. The local Domestic Violence Service was just fantastic. They sorted the kids with warm clothes, shoes and jammies. They got me a new SIM Card for my phone, provided welfare advise, accompanied me to Court, and arranged counselling for the children. Our journey is only beginning, but the supports we got through the RTE Toy Show Appeal helped us take the first steps. They probably saved our lives.

(Louise 41*)

Safe Ireland is a national development and co-ordination body working to eradicate Domestic Violence (DV). We have four distinct functions: investigating the causes and effects of DV; delivering frontline refuge and support services; developing guidelines for domestic violence best practice; and influencing national strategic policy. This is achieved through a network of 38 affiliate independent frontline DV services; local communities; professionals; public bodies; academic institutions; philanthropists; and corporate partners. The RTE Toy Show Appeal has assisted us in responding to the surge in demand for services since the outbreak of the pandemic. On behalf of the beneficiaries we thank the viewers for their generous support.

* Name has been changed

Rent Supplement for Victims of Domestic Violence

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Today the Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has announced that she is making Rent Supplement a permanent offering for women fleeing domestic abuse. The initiative, which was first piloted after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, makes Rent Supplement immediately available to victims of domestic violence under a unique protocol which waives the conventional qualifying criteria. Applicants can immediately avail of the Rent Supplement for a period of three months without the requirement of a means-test, and this may be extended for a further three months for those who do meet the mean-test requirement.

Speaking today in response to the announcement, Lisa Marmion, the Services Development Manager at Safe Ireland warmly welcomed the Minister’s decision to consolidate the offering. Outlining the background to the scheme Ms Marmion explained

“After the outbreak of Covid, Safe Ireland made the case for unencumbered access to Rent Supplement for women exiting violence in the family home. In such circumstances many women leave without the documentation required to assess their means and to access social welfare benefits. We called for a simplified measure which would waive the means-test convention for a short period of time, and that could be deployed swiftly at local level.”

During the first Covid lockdown, there was a surge of demand for already over-subscribed domestic violence refuge spaces. In nine counties spanning the Border and Midlands regions there is no refuge at all. At the same time as the demand for refuge increased many rental properties had fallen vacant, as people living in cities returned to their hometown to work or study remotely. In light of these two coinciding dynamics, Safe Ireland proposed that the means-test convention for Rent Supplement be waived for a period of three months, and that the thirty-eight frontline domestic violence (DV) services across the country be authorised to act as local referral agents, alongside other nominated contact points in An Garda Síochána and the HSE. Following a period of negotiation between the Dept of Social Protection and the referral point agents, a protocol was finally agreed in August 2020 and the scheme was introduced.

Speaking on the significance of the initiative Miriam Kivlehan, Policy and Communication Manager with Safe Ireland stated that “Whilst Covid was the catalyst to pilot the scheme, its permanency is a very important component in the suite of responses required to support women, and children, to safety. In the first twelve months of its operation, fifty-five women availed of the Supplement for the three-month period. A number of beneficiaries continued to avail of the support for a further three-month period as they had by then established an entitlement in their own right. It has been a hugely significant measure particularly in the nine counties that have no refuge, and has, without doubt been a life-saving intervention. We are delighted that Minister Humphrey’s has acknowledged its role in empowering women to safety and its contribution to the whole of government response required to eliminate violence against women.”

Budget 2022 Fails to Prioritise Domestic Violence

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Safe Ireland has expressed great disappointment at the failure of government to invest in critical domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) response measures in Budget 2022.

Speaking in reaction to the Expenditure Allocation document published on Wednesday, CEO Mary McDermott stated that

“It is beyond disappointing, indeed offensive, that despite national prioritisation, and huge efforts by so many to heighten both public and political awareness of the scale of violence against women, and against children; despite evidence of the cost to survivors, their families, communities and the State, that government has again failed to commit to a coherent response in this budget cycle.”

It is notable from the budget document that there is a refusal to clearly address and prioritise domestic violence as a national social problem, and no progress has been made towards integrated funding. Finance for frontline DSGBV services remains an under-resourced subset within a Tusla Children and Family Support Programme budget, a separate state agency under the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

“Whilst Tusla has been given an increase in its global allocation for 2022, there is no specified allocation for DSGBV. This means domestic violence services and rape crisis centres will now have to compete against each other for resources, and against Tusla’s other priorities, including its own corporate development.”

 

The Budget 2022 document commits only to “maintaining” an unspecified budget for DSGBV services within Tusla, with no commitment for additional resources to respond to the 19 new women and 3 new children contacting a local service every day over the past 12 months. Whilst acknowledging the role of Tusla as a respondent for child victims of DSGBV, it is reprehensible that adult women victims of violence are relegated to that of a subset within “child and family” support services, with no dedicated funding line in their own right.

Equally deficient in the budget document is the absence of any commitment for emergency, transitional, or long-term accommodation and housing for women fleeing violence. Safe Ireland has costed and called for commitments to increase refuge capacity, implement a Safe-at-Home Sanctuary Scheme, and make provision for transitional housing, yet none of these urgent necessities were included in the governments housing capital programmes. It is also disconcerting to note that despite the acknowledged need for Rent Supplement to be made a permanent offering for victims of DV, no clear commitment in this regard was included in the budget statement.

Safe Ireland welcomes the Dept of Justice commitment to advancing its preventative work in awareness-raising and training, and its intent to invest more in Garda resources, including the investigation of DSGBV crime. Nevertheless, given the structural failure of the cancelled 999 calls, it is unclear whether or not this increase in funding will manifest as additionality or simply supplement evident inefficiencies in existing policing levels.

In conclusion, McDermott stated that “2020 marked a moment in history when Irish society collectively identified and prioritised domestic violence as a large-scale social problem. In 2021 we have been shocked by increasing incidents of femicide, familicide and infanticide in Ireland. 2022 will see the commencement of Ireland’s Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual, and Gender-Based Violence. This is the first strategy developed since Ireland ratified the Istanbul Convention Treaty. It coincides with heightened public awareness of the need for coherent response and increasing outrage at wide-spread violence against women and girls. Sadly this budget indicates that our public policy makers and political leaders remain resistant to substantive response and systemic change. Our national journey on domestic violence since the outbreak of Covid19 has generated wide-scale community support and mobilised generous public responses to the issue; therefore women, children, and society at large deserved a better response from Government in Budget 2022.”

Safe Ireland – Cancelled 999 Domestic Violence calls expose dangerous practice, out-dated technologies and unreliable data

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Safe Ireland, working with 39 frontline domestic violence services, said that while it welcomed reports today that the cancellation of domestic violence 999 calls had fallen by two-thirds following the introduction of tighter controls on how calls were processed in late 2020, flaws of such a serious nature were not reducible to technologies.

Further details on local and individual practice, on information flow and on data implications are necessary.

Mary McDermott, CEO of Safe Ireland, said that these events contrast sharply with the positive on-the-ground effects of Operation Faoiseamh which explicitly supported local gardaí to prioritise domestic violence.

“This is clearly not a matter of policy but practice and technical infrastructure. More seriously, it also appears to expose remnant dismissive attitudes in our police service to coercive control and abuse in the home as merely a private matter rather than a crime. All gardaí need depth training on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence”

Furthermore, accurate recording of data directly effects how dv is understood. If calls were cancelled, repeating and patterned calls from survivors, which evidence coercive control, may not be recognised or escalated appropriately.

“We know that what happened with these calls is not Garda policy,” she said. “We have welcomed and actively supported Operation Faoiseamh, which prioritised the response to domestic violence survivors from the start of Covid-19. Our service members across the country have spoken about the importance of proactive Garda response to domestic violence and the developments that the force has made over recent years particularly. These call cancellations directly undermine this work.”

 

“However, we have also consistently reported identifiable and persistent regional pockets of bad practice, particularly amongst rank-and-file gardaí, where there would seem to be a continued lack of professional understanding of the nature, complexity or impact of coercive control and trauma.”

McDermott said that the cancellation of crisis calls are clear evidence of poor practice and show the need for immediate and substantive training on coercive control for all members of the police service, at all levels, but particularly for those in the call centres as the first point of contact for many survivors.

She also said that the cancellation of DV 999 calls further undermines Garda data on the crime of coercive control. Immediate and thorough-going review of these processes is necessary.

#HaveYourSay on the next DSGBV strategy

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Department of Justice with Safe Ireland and NWCI launches a public consultation process to help develop a new national strategy.

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/TNS

Department of Justice (@DeptJusticeIRL) Tweeted:

🚨 📢 We along with partners  @SAFEIreland & @NWCI have launched a public #consultation process to help develop a new national strategy to combat Domestic, Sexual & Gender-based Violence

#HaveYourSay here below
👉 https://t.co/pM9XLwquSc
@1Hildegarde https://t.co/JnigCCsUej

https://twitter.com/DeptJusticeIRL/status/1399274510604550151?s=20

Airbnb extends partnership to provide free accommodation to domestic violence survivors

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Airbnb has extended its partnership with Safe Ireland and Women’s Aid to provide free emergency accommodation for domestic violence survivors across Ireland. The decision comes as Ireland prepares to lift lockdown restrictions and emergency refuge services operate with reduced capacity and an increase in demand.

The initial partnership launched in June 2020 as Ireland prepared to reopen from the first lockdown and has provided 2,000 nights of emergency accommodation to date.

Domestic violence services have continued to see high numbers through 2021 with many survivors presenting with highly complex needs and heightened trauma from months of living with their abusers in extended lockdown.

The need to ensure safe social distancing in specialist domestic violence accommodation services has reduced capacity by 25% and there is concern that demand may increase further over the summer months. Last year July and August were the busiest months as women are often more reticent to leave homes whilst children are in school.

Safe Ireland’s ‘Tracking the Shadow Pandemic’ reports carried out through 2020 show that on average, 180 women and 275 children looked for emergency accommodation every month between March and December. But in that same time, 2,159 requests for refuge could not be met by services, indicating the importance of having other accommodation choices available.

Mary McDermott, CEO of Safe Ireland said,

“Domestic violence is the leading cause of family homelessness. The availability of safe, affordable and stable housing is fundamental not only to a woman’s ability to escape an abusive partner, but also to remain safe and independent. This partnership with Airbnb has provided a crisis-time option for some women to escape violence and we are delighted that it is continuing. The accommodation provided is designed to be temporary but it provides critical respite for services and women to make longer term plans.”

 Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid said,

“Women’s Aid is delighted to know that this vital support to women and children is being extended by Airbnb. The need and demand for creative responses to the needs of those subjected to domestic abuse is only increasing. Our 24hr National Freephone Helpline, which responded to 38% more calls between March and December 2020, acts as a direct referral point to a wide range of local and regional services and supports for women subjected to abuse all over Ireland, and we will continue to signpost callers in need of accommodation to all of the domestic violence services participating in this partnership.”

Airbnb will continue to work through its hotel partners to provide temporary accommodation, free of charge, when specialist emergency accommodation is not available. Domestic violence services throughout the country will assess the safety needs of survivors before arranging bookings into the temporary hotel accommodation.

All those accommodated as part of this initiative will continue to be closely supported by domestic violence specialists. Safe Ireland will coordinate the initiative with its frontline services and support from the Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline. All accommodation costs are sourced and paid for by Airbnb.

Jean Hoey, Public Policy Lead for Airbnb in Ireland, said,

“We have much to look forward to as lockdown restrictions ease and a return to a sense of normality seems possible again. For those facing domestic abuse however, freedom will always seem out of reach. It’s a privilege for us to be able to support the vital work of Safe Ireland and Women’s Aid to ensure that anyone seeking help can be offered a safe space from where they can hopefully take the first steps towards rebuilding their lives.”

Main Funders:

SAFE Ireland National Social Change Agency CLG is a registered charity: Charity number 20039677; Revenue CHY number 13064. Registered company number 291205.