Welsh Women’s Aid

PRESS RELEASE

• Campaign launched today (15th Feb) tackles teenage attitudes to abuse within relationships
• Welsh Women’s Aid welcomes campaign and look forward to working with the Assembly to develop it in Wales

The Women’s Aid movement in Wales welcomes the launch today of a powerful new Home Office advertising campaign aimed at reducing the levels of abuse and violence in teenagers’ relationships by challenging attitudes.

The adverts send a strong message to 13 to 18 year olds, highlighting the signs and consequences of abuse, and challenging them to stop abusive behaviour or seek help. The campaign is also aimed at parents of teenagers, showing them how to recognise that their teenagers may be in abusive relationships.

The campaign is based on recent NSPCC research which found that a quarter of girls and 18 per cent of boys reported some form of physical violence in relationships, and nearly three quarters of girls reported some sort of emotional abuse. Research has shown a similar picture in Wales. A survey into the attitudes of students in Welsh higher education institutes carried out by Amnesty International and the NUS in 2008 found that:

• 64% of students know women whose boyfriends have hit them
• 41% know women whose boyfriends have coerced them into sex
• 34% think a woman is at least partially to blame for being raped if she is drunk

The Home Office campaign is the first part of a long-term communications plan announced in the UK Government’s ‘Together We Can End Violence Against Women and Girls’ strategy, launched in November 2009. In Wales, Social Justice Minister Carl Sargeant AM has recently announced plans to finalise an integrated strategy to tackle all forms of violence against women by the end of February.

Paula Hardy, Chief Executive of Welsh Women’s Aid, said:

"Welsh Women’s Aid welcomes the Home Office campaign, especially the strong focus on preventing violence from happening in the first place.

"Currently, two women a week are killed in England and Wales alone by their partner or ex-partner. The prevalence of domestic abuse in Wales is higher than in the rest of the UK and shows no signs of decreasing. Challenging attitudes that lead to the normalisation of violence against women and girls is critical to ensuring that levels of violence decrease.

"Attitudinal change doesn’t happen overnight but this is an excellent first step for the Home Office and we will be working with the Welsh Assembly Government to develop a second stage of the campaign in Wales. The Social Justice Minister has announced that violence against women is one of his top priorities. We look forward to the launch of Wales’s first integrated violence against women strategy, and hope this is the first of many public awareness campaigns tackling violence against women in Wales."

Morgan Fackrell, Chief Executive of Cardiff Women’s Aid, said:

"We strongly support the Home Office campaign and the emphasis on prevention. On a grassroots level, Women’s Aid groups in Wales are at the forefront of practical responses to preventing domestic abuse from happening in the first place.

Cardiff Women’s Aid is developing a project working with children and young people who have been affected by domestic abuse, which will be piloted in Cardiff and hopefully rolled out across Women’s Aid groups in Wales. The project enables children and young people to understand the attitudes that inform their behaviour and helps them to understand that healthy relationships are possible."

The Women’s Aid movement in Wales has been at the forefront of providing support to women and children experiencing domestic abuse for over thirty years. Welsh Women’s Aid also manages the Wales Domestic Abuse Helpline, a free 24-hour, gender neutral, bilingual and confidential helpline. Teenagers and concerned parents can call the Helpline for support and information on 0808 80 10 800.

The new Home Office website is also aimed at young people, and gives details of sources of help, as well as an online polling facility. The website, called 'This is Abuse' can be accessed via this link

ENDS

Welsh Women’s Aid’s website can be found at www.welshwomensaid.org

Extract from 9 Jan 2010 Ministerial Statement, Carl Sargeant – Minister for Social Justice and Local Government:

"My predecessor, Brian Gibbons listened carefully to the responses from the consultation and had indicated that in line with these responses that the Assembly Government would develop an integrated strategy which covers the wider violence against women agenda. This strategy will build on, and link to, our existing Domestic Abuse strategy that was published in 2004. The aim will be to ensure that we provide support for all victims in Wales. I want to ensure that the development of this strategy is a priority and therefore I expect the work to be completed by the end February 2010."

NSPCC Partner Exploitation and Violence in Teenage Intimate Relationships, September 2009 surveyed 1,353 young people, aged 13-17 from England, Scotland and Wales. The full report can be found at http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/Findings/partner_exploitation_and_violence_wda68092.html

Amnesty International and NUS Wales Women’s Campaign (2008), ‘Violence Against Women: The Perspective of Students in Wales’, downloadable from Amnesty Wales website. 733 students from 12 campuses across Wales were surveyed.

For more information and to arrange interviews, contact Welsh Women’s Aid (Becky Jones or Emma Harris) on 02920 390874.