To raise awareness of the excellent work that Women’s Aid refuges do across Wales, and for the first time, Welsh Women’s Aid is participating in WAVE’s (Women Against Violence Europe) annual Global Shelter Data Count project.

The project aims to provide a snapshot of life in refuge for use in advocacy, campaigning and raising awareness about the good work that refuges do. It does this by collecting information from refuges about their experiences on one specific day – White Ribbon Day (25 November 2009).

Get involved!

We need you to get involved so that we have as accurate a picture as possible of the services provided by Women’s Aid groups across Wales. There are two pieces of information that we need – the first is essential, and the second is optional but provides a really useful context, so please do supply it if possible:

1. A basic count of all residents receiving services from Women’s Aid groups on 25 November 2009
2. Anonymised quotes or comments from staff, volunteers, residents and service users

Click here for some examples of quotes that others have used for part (2).

What is the information used for?

WWA will use this information to raise awareness of the excellent work that groups are doing across Wales, and for campaigning and advocacy for the ongoing need for Women’s Aid services, the need for increased service provision, and any problems that you tell us you faced on November 25th.

WAVE will use the information on a European level for the same purposes, linking with women’s refuges across Europe.

As the project counts data from White Ribbon Day, WWA will also use the information for campaigning and advocating for Women’s Aid groups across Wales for White Ribbon Day 2010.

How to submit your data

Please supply information using the pro-forma and spreadsheet below, and return to Kirstie by Friday 11^th December 2009. If you have any queries at all, please contact Kirstie via email or phone 029 20 390 874

Download the Proforma

Download the Spreadsheet

About the Global Shelter Data Count project

The project was initiated by the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelter in Canada. This organization also hosted the first World Conference of Women’s Shelters in 2008. There, global data collection was identified as a powerful advocacy tool for the good work that shelters do.

The Global Shelter Data Count is a project which is based on these findings and aims at gathering information on existing shelter networks and the capacity of shelters in each nation.