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Background to Advance

ADVANCE was set up 10 years ago as a pilot project, in response to many years of work with the Domestic Violence Forum. Research undertaken by the Forum identified a gap in services for survivors who wanted to obtain protection through the criminal justice system, revealing that only a very small number of cases ever got to court and an even smaller number resulted in a successful prosecution. We recognised that the system was failing survivors and that there was very little support offered to survivors attending court trying to gain protection from domestic violence.

In 1998 there was no agency in Hammersmith and Fulham providing ongoing intensive support and information to survivors still living with their abusers. ADVANCE set out to tackle this problem and to support survivors through the long and often confusing legal process from police callout to continuing support after the court case has finished.

- 50% of our funding comes from statutory bodies, the rest we have to fund raise ourselves to keep the service running.

- We have been helping women for ten years now.

- We deal with over 1,500 cases a year.

- ADVANCE were involved in the set up and running of the first Specialist Domestic Violence Court.

In the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Brent, ADVANCE is now the first point of contact for survivors who call police, access emergency housing or go to a health site for treatment.

We currently deal with over 1,500 cases a year.

ADVANCE also help set up and run London's first Specialist Domestic Violence Court, based in Hammersmith and Fulham, as well as helping to restructure and develop the Specialist Domestic Violence Court which opened in Brent in April 2007. We provide in-court advocacy for any survivor attending court.

Since January 2008, we have been managing our second domestic violence advocacy project on behalf of Brent Council. The project is based within Brent Police station and is known as ADVANCE Brent. It is currently run by a Manager, three advocates, one Specialist Domestic Volence Court Co-ordinator and a data analyst. We aim to replicate our ethos, aims and model of good practice advocacy through the new Brent project.

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