"...Some facts and figures relating to the ADVANCE charity and the work we continually carry out for our clients..."

ADVANCE prides itself on the work we carry out throughout the year. Below are some of the facts and figures relating to our charity and the work we have carried out with women involved in our projects.

• 1412 referrals received
• 47% were from BME communities
• 57% had children under 5 years or were pregnant
• 70% referrals came from the Police

OUTCOMES
• 60% prosecution rate
• 89% engagement rate
• 76% of women reported domestic violence ceased after our support
• 80% of women we worked with said they felt safer as a result of our support

Main areas of work completed with women were:
• Safety planning
• Legal advice via the drop in solicitor
• Housing support
• Child protection
• Emotional support
• Assistance and advocacy at court
• Signposting on to other specialist and mainstream agencies
• Assistance with DIY injunctions
• Crisis intervention
• MARAC work (Multi agency risk assessment conference)
• Liaison with criminal justice teams

NB This was Minerva’s first year. As a new service we spent a lot of time and effort generating referrals and raising the profile of the service. We anticipate higher referral rates and outcomes achieved in 2011/12.

In addition to this work the teams delivered a variety of awareness training alongside Standing Together to a variety of front line agencies to assist with the services delivered to women. We also delivered workshops to children on safety planning as well as providing the 24 hour on call referral and crisis intervention.

We also had other work going on within the teams to support the Specialist Domestic Violence Courts, development of other services in the borough through strategic input into local action plans and evaluations of ours and other services.