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SAFE Ireland National Social Change Agency CLG is a registered charity: Charity number 20039677; Revenue CHY number 13064. Registered company number 291205.
Woman and Child – The most far reaching, creative and inspiring campaign we’ve ever run!
2,275,513 impressions. In just two weeks.
That’s the reach achieved by with our amazing and powerful 1 minute film Woman and Child, made by film maker Marion Bergin, and which was at the heart of our Nollaig na mBan campaign, launched on January 6th 2021.
So impressions are one thing – they give us an idea about how many times a post about our campaign appeared in somebody’s feed. But, engagement is something completely different. In total, there were over 200,000 video views across its different cutdown formats – 1 minute, 30 seconds and 10 seconds. And of those views, there was a massive 133,870 video completions.
One of our core aims for this campaign was to raise awareness about coercive control. The film, in just 60 seconds, and less, depicting the shrinking and micro-managed world of a woman and child living with control and abuse. We hope that at least 133,870 more people now know a little more about this insidious crime.
But the film was just one half of the campaign. Its darkness was complemented with a truly standout Herstory lightshow featuring images that incapsulated the sovereignty, strength, resilience, diversity and autonomy of women. Every day for two weeks, these amazing images were shared, liked, re-tweeted thousands of times, helping to spread the reach of the campaign even further.
On January 6th itself, in freezing temperatures, a small little band of socially distanced women and men met in O’Connell Street to light up the GPO first. We then moved on to Christchurch Cathedral where the Archbishop and Dean came out to meet us. After that it was down to the former Magdalene Laundry on Sean McDermott Street before heading out to Clontarf to illuminate a domestic house. It was perhaps the illumination on the ordinary house that was most haunting and evocative. It was a reminder that control, abuse and inequality happens in our midst, on our roads, in our villages and neighbourhoods. Until it is exposed here – illuminated here – it will continue to thrive, in the shadows, in the silence. But, hopefully with this campaign, we have raised consciousness about this.
We are extremely grateful to all of the amazing artists and creatives who worked with us to make this campaign such a success – the Herstory movement, Marion Bergin and Lisa Turnbull of The Nice Things, photographers and artists Ellen McDermott, Myriam Riand and Áine O’Brien, Dodeca for the illuminations and Adrian O’Connell for his videography.
A huge thank you for your unprecedented response to women and children living with abuse
We are all in this together. It was the line that kept us all going through the crisis lockdown months of Covid-19. We all knew that if we were to protect the most vulnerable in our communities and in our families we had to stay at home, stay away from our friends and loved ones and yet stay connected and together as a nation and as communities in social solidarity.
While most of us could retreat safely into our homes as places of sanctuary and respite from the virus that was out there, for women and children now facing the horrendous prospect of being locked down with an abuser, home was anything but a safe haven.
The Shadow Pandemic
On the Ryan Tubridy Show, our Co-CEO Sharon O’Halloran said that she cried when she heard the news about Covid-19 and the immediate plans for lockdown. She knew from the experience of other countries already under lockdown that there was also a shadow pandemic on the horizon – the pandemic of domestic violence and abuse.
From the first announcement of lockdown on March 12th, Safe Ireland’s work switched immediately to ensuring that the 39 Safe Ireland member services were fully supported to stay open and to do everything they could, often under testing circumstances, and with gross under-resourcing, to protect and help women to stay safe or escape abuse and violence in their homes.
Then, something quite extraordinary began to happen.
While isolation and lockdown was not easy for most of us, we collectively began to see and understand the serious dangers that isolation and containment posed for women and children living with controlling tyrants and abusers.
An Amazing Community Response
At Safe Ireland, we had already opened a Covid-19 Emergency Fund to help provide urgent funding directly to women and children through our member services.
Almost immediately, our fund was boosted by extremely generous donations from the Bank of Ireland, through the ongoing support of the Community Foundation for Ireland, and the Ireland Funds. This was the start of a vital and vibrant community response to the issue of domestic violence that we had really never seen before.
Over subsequent weeks, individuals, theatre companies and artists were holding the most creative and imaginative events to, not just fundraise for Safe Ireland, but to raise awareness about the issue.
Singers like Emma Langford and Glen Hansard dedicated funds from stellar performances to the Safe Ireland Covid-19 Emergency Fund. Noirin Lynch, wrote and dedicated a song to Safe Ireland. Drew Maitland and David Keogan organised Couch Eile, a pop up live music streaming event. The Fregoli Theatre Company staged a unique, thought-provoking performance with all donations going to the fund. Criti-call, a collaboration of professional, voluntary and community groups, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Iveagh Trust, Scouts, Serve the City, An Garda Síochána and others came together to provide essential supports and materials to our services in Dublin and across many other counties.
We began to get exciting inklings about a collaboration by 40 of Ireland’s top female artists, led by the amazing Ruth Anne Cunningham, with the support of MCD, to perform The Cranberries’ (And Delores O’Riordan’s) Dreams to raise money for Safe Ireland. We all now know the phenomenal success that that amazing performance by Irish Women in Harmony has been – it not just gave us a fantastic rendition of a favourite song, it brought the issue of domestic violence into homes, through radios, laptops, and mobile phones throughout the country and raised over €215,000 to be used directly for women and children. It also spun off the best t-shirts we have ever worn with the Beanantee’s ‘Don’t Mess with Mná’ collection.
We have also had amazing corporate support from companies like Airbnb, Boots Ireland, Total Health, Twitter, Revolut and Tesco. In addition to vital in-kind support, they have all worked with us to ensure that the critical message reaches survivors that professional support is available for them, in their own communities. We look forward to furthering these partnerships as we continue to support women and children in a new post-Covid world.
There are many others who have supported us – not least the thousands of individuals who donated through the Dreams campaign and many others.
We have been humbled by your generosity and emboldened by your solidarity, understanding and empathy with women and children living in unsafe homes.
You have shown that, we are indeed, all in this together.
Thank you.
Irish Women in Harmony release single in aid of Safe Ireland
Safe Ireland is delighted to be supported by Irish Women in Harmony, a collective of over 40 Irish female artists, who have come together to record ‘Dreams’ by the Cranberries.
All funds raised from this beautiful recording will go to the Safe Ireland Covid-19 Emergency Fund, which will be distributed through our 39 member services. It will be used directly to meet the needs of women and children fleeing violence and abuse in their homes.
In order to address the problem of domestic abuse we need a strong community response, and this amazing collaboration is exactly that. A community of talented Irish female artists coming together to send a powerful message to those living with domestic abuse – they are not alone.
You can stream the song on your favourite platform here, add it to your playlists/collections and request it on radio!
The video will premiere at 7pm on Thursday 18th of June and can be viewed here.
You can donate €4 by texting SAFE to 50300 or donate through PayPal here.
For more information on the Safe Ireland Emergency Covid-19 Fund click here.
We would like to thank all of the artists involved in Irish Women in Harmony, particularly Ruth Anne for bringing this collective together and all at MCD Productions for their continued support.
The amazing artists featured on the song:
Ailbhe Reddy, Aimée, Áine Cahill, Allie Sherlock, Caroline Corr, Elaine Mai, Emma Langford, Erica Cody, Eve Belle, Faye O’Rourke, Fia Moon, Imelda May, Laoise, Lilla Vargen, Lisa Hannigan, Loah, Lyra, Melina Malone, Moya Brennan, Niamh Farrell, Orla Gartland, Pillow Queens, Roe, Róisín O, RuthAnne, Saint Sister, Sibéal, Soulé, Stephanie Rainey, Tolü Makay, Una Healy, the trio that constitutes Wyvern Lingo, Aoife Dennedy, Louize Carroll, Lucia McPartlin, Maria O’Connor, Maria Ryan, Sarah Lynch and Theodora Byrne
Two Amazing Nights of Music in Aid of Safe Ireland
We are delighted to share news about two amazing nights of music happening this week in aid of Safe Ireland.
As part of the Other Voices Live, Courage series, Glen Hansard will be performing live from the National Library of Ireland at 8 pm on Thursday, 21st of May.
We are honoured that Glen has chosen Safe Ireland as his nominated charity, with all funds raised going to our Covid-19 Emergency Fund.
The event will be live-streamed on Youtube, Facebook and RTE.ie
The second event, Couch Eile will take place from 7 pm on Saturday, 23rd of May
Irish duo Drew Maitland and David Keogan will host a pop-up, global live streaming event, which will host a diverse range of talented musicians from around the world, all performing to raise awareness and funds for three charities Safe Ireland, Médecins sans Frontiéres Ireland (Doctors without Borders) and Men’s Aid
The event will be live-streamed on Youtube and Facebook
It has been truly heartening to see the number of creative initiatives and kind offers of support we have received in recent weeks from people who want to do something to help women and children living with domestic abuse during this critical time.
We are incredibly grateful to Glen Hansard, the Other Voices team and all at Couch Eile for their support.
You can donate directly to our Emergency Covid-19 Fund here. So far, the fund has supported nearly 150 women and 300 children to find safety, providing practical but essential items like food, heating oil, utility bills, transport costs or materials and appliances needed for new accommodation. We expect that the demand on this fund will rise over the coming weeks as women and children continue to find the space and freedom to reach out for support.
Artists raise money for Safe Ireland Covid-19 Emergency Fund
One of the things that this pandemic has highlighted is that we are all in this together – that the virus can only be suppressed if we work together to stop it from spreading. Domestic abuse and coercive control is no different. It also needs a strong community response if we are to end it.
We have been blown away by people’s generosity and willingness to help during this crisis. These acts of kindness are sending a strong message to women and children that they are not alone, even at this time of isolation.
We were incredibly grateful to see two wonderful Irish artists, Emma Langford and Noirin Lynch using their talents to raise funds for Safe Ireland.
Noirin Lynch, who works closely with the NCCWN Clare Women’s Network wrote a beautiful song ‘Good People’ about the little things that are making a difference for us during this strange and unprecedented time.
In flatland small things matter.A lovely neighbour creating a garden where there was cement, another arranging candles for #shinealight, a weekly zoom with friends, a 6 yr old nephew with a line in dad jokes that make us all cry laughing …. these things keep our hearts alive. So before lose my nerve I'm gonna share this. Excuse the brutal guitar, I'm out of practise. If you like it you might make a donation to Safe Ireland – Here https://www.safeireland.ie/get-involved/how-to-fundraise-and-donate/, or, – You can donate €4 now by texting SAFE to 50300
Posted by Nóirin Lynch on Monday, April 20, 2020
Emma Langford, a singer/songwriter from Limerick so kindly decided to donate all proceeds from her song ‘Mariana’, a song with a strong message of love and hope to the Safe Ireland Emergency Fund. You can buy the digital track here.
Emma Langford: Mariana (Official Music Video)
The music video for 'Mariana' was created in isolation at the height of the covid-19 lockdown in April 2020, by Sophia Cadogan. It's a celebration of the beauty of the world around us, and the beauty of the world inside us. I hope it gives you hope. The video is being shared today in conjunction with The Haven Hub, in loving memory of its co-founder Lesley-Anne Liddane'Mariana' is available to buy digitally here, with all proceeds going to Safe Ireland: https://emmalangfordmusic.bandcamp.com/track/mariana-2'Sowing Acorns' is available to pre-order on CD here: https://emmalangfordmusic.bandcamp.com/album/sowing-acorns-album-pre-order'Mariana' was produced, directed by, and stars Sophia CadoganProduction assistant: Saoirse Casey "muscles for holding the gimbal": Patrick CaseyColour grading and titles by JP Quill
Posted by Emma Langford on Tuesday, May 5, 2020
All donations at this critical time will be distributed through our 38 member services to provide immediate and practical needs to women and children, to re-home them when necessary and to help ensure that they have the vital resources they might need to be safe in their own homes.
To donate to our Covid-19 Emergency Fund click here.
If you would like to fundraise for Safe Ireland, we would love to hear from you. Please contact info@safeireland.ie
Safe Homes, Safe Communities: National Conference for a Safe Ireland
On the 25th of November 2019, Safe Ireland hosted the Safe Homes, Safe Communities: National Conference for a Safe Ireland in Westport, coinciding with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Help Make Her World Bigger Again – Quick Reference Guide to Coercive Control
Safe Ireland is delighted to publish our ‘Quick Reference Guide to Coercive Control’ which has been designed to help explain what coercive control is, what signs to look out for and also to provide information on the Criminal Offence of Coercive Control.
If you would like copies of our quick reference guide for yourself or to share in your workplace, community, neighbourhood or for a friend or family member we can post some out to you. Please email info@safeireland.ie or phone 0906 479078.
You can also download the guide here
PIE4Shelter
Safe Ireland was a partner in an EU funded project called PIE4shelters which commenced in January 2018 and which ran 2 years.
The project aimed to improve the capacity of homeless services including domestic violence refuges to support women with the experience of homelessness and gender-based violence.
It was co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme of the European Commission. It was implemented by a consortium comprising of homeless and gender-based violence services which included: BMSZKI- Budapest Methodological Centre of Social Policy (Hungary, coordinator), CVFE – Collectif contre les Violences Familiales et l’Exclusion (Belgium), FEANTSA (Belgium/EU), Safe Ireland (Ireland), fio.PSD (Italy) and DePaul (UK).
The main activities and outputs of the project were:
- Develop a PIE training framework, target group were homeless and domestic violence refuges.
The project developed a training guideline for domestic violence and homeless services, based on a trauma-informed practice tailored approach which can be accessed here.
The PIE4shelters Guide aims at providing practical guidance and materials to improve service provision for women who have experienced or are experiencing homelessness and gender-based violence (GBV). The guide is targeted at homeless services, specialist GBV services and other services that support women who have experienced homelessness and GBV. The four language versions (English, French, Hungarian and Italian) are fully available on the PIE4shelters project website.
- Train frontline and management staff working with homeless services/domestic violence refuges in the partner countries HU, BE, IE, IT, UK.
In Ireland, Safe Ireland delivered 10 training sessions to frontline domestic violence refuge staff. There were a total of 173 participants that attended across all training sessions. The total number of individual people trained equalled 89 and is inclusive of frontline staff, management, board members, administrative staff, maintenance staff, housekeeping, and volunteers.
In total 4 different modules were delivered. Module 1 which provided a general introduction to trauma and Trauma-Informed Care and Responses was delivered to all staff including management and some board members.
Module 2 and 3 were delivered to staff and management with a frontline function. The aim of these training modules was to make sense of trauma in the context of domestic violence.
Module 4 was delivered to management and board members and focused on learning about and exploring the organisational implications of becoming a Trauma-Informed Care Organisation.
- Organize national awareness-raising events on PIE in partner countries, the target group are homeless services.
In order to disseminate the learning from the PIE4Shelter project, we targeted two awareness-raising events. The first was a national conference on Trauma-Informed Care where the audience was mainly comprised of managers and frontline staff in the social services sector including specialist DV and Homeless service providers. Caitriona Gleeson gave a 15-minute presentation on developing Trauma-Informed Environments to respond to women experiences GBV.
We also presented details of the PIE4Shelter project to our members at a national meeting which we held to raise awareness of the project and related issues concerning service provision, homelessness, domestic abuse and trauma. This event was held in the Sheraton Hotel in Athlone on Tuesday the 10th December. There was facilitated dialogue led by the PIE4Shelter Coordinator and Safe Ireland CEO Sharon O’Halloran. Information about the PIE4Shelter programme and the emerging issues were discussed with the participants.
Safe Homes Safe Communities – A National Conference for a Safe Ireland
Safe Ireland invites you to join us at our National Conference for a Safe Ireland, which will be taking place on the 25th of November 2019 in Westport, coinciding with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The underpinning theme of our conference is prevention and what we need to understand, learn and do if we are to create communities that are safe and free from violence.
Our morning session will look at the scale of the problem with thought-provoking and radical presentations on coercive control, its human impact and its shocking cost. We will then examine what is at the root of coercive control with a presentation of brand new research on Irish attitudes towards gender equality, roles and responsibilities, commissioned by Safe Ireland.
In the afternoon, we will look at what has to happen to develop a national prevention strategy, across areas like policing, health, community and education. Then, we will launch a new and exciting Safe Ireland strategy to make County Mayo a pilot site for real and measured change in the way we prevent and respond effectively to violence and abuse in our homes and in our communities. We believe that this strategy paves the way for a revolution in the safety of women and children in Ireland.
This National Conference for a Safe Ireland will bring together national and international experts, leaders and trailblazers, practitioners, policymakers, academics, funders and other stakeholders in the field of domestic violence reduction. It offers a unique opportunity for learning, creating change, collaboration, engagement, and being at the heart of the movement to end domestic violence.
Confirmed speakers include:
Lynn Rosenthal – the first White House Advisor on Violence Against Women
Ryan Hart – Coercive Control Survivor and Activist
Davina James Hanman – Leading UK Coercive Control Expert
Detective Supt. Gordon McCreadie – Police Scotland’s National lead for Domestic Abuse, Forced Marriage, HBA and Stalking & Harassment
The full programme can be viewed here.
A certificate of attendance will be given towards CPD for any attendee who needs same.
For further details and to book tickets click here.