Warrior Women Walk
Trevi is a nationally award-winning women’s and children’s charity based in Plymouth, providing safe and nurturing spaces for women in recovery. It’s celebrating 30 years of helping to change women’s lives for the better.
Research clearly shows that if a woman is subjected to abuse and trauma, it can often result in developing problems with drugs and alcohol. A child is taken into care every 15 minutes, with only 1 in 10 being reunited with their mother. However, the majority of UK services have not been designed in response to the specific needs of a woman, especially one who has experienced trauma. Trevi’s expert team provides the understanding, treatment and care needed to help women and mothers break their addiction for good and rebuild their lives. Trevi’s work takes place across three main centres: Sunflower Women’s Centre, Jasmine Mother’s Recovery, and Daffodil Family Centre.
Trevi’s three centres
Sunflower Women’s Centre is the only women’s centre in Plymouth providing a safe hub, and it supports and empowers more than 700 local women each year. Many of the women need help in recovering from addiction, mental ill health, criminogenic behaviours and domestic abuse. Sunflower staff work with each woman to understand her individual needs, and put together a support plan which can include activities such as accredited training, group work, counselling, creative therapies, attending the drop-in women’s space, , parenting support, and peer mentoring.
Jasmine Mother’s Recovery takes referrals from across the UK and is the only centre of its kind in the country. For mothers accepted on the programme, it offers a last chance to keep their children rather than have them removed from their care. Twelve women and their children can live in the centre at a time, and on average they stay there for 12 weeks while the mothers undertake a strict therapeutic rehabilitation plan. The women spend time with their children, share housekeeping tasks and cook meals together; the facilities also include an Ofsted registered nursery where the children are looked after during the mothers’ therapy sessions. The programme is an opportunity to break a cycle of abuse, and drug and alcohol dependency which can become self-perpetuating from generation to generation. The women are given the chance to make a fresh start in life and prevent their children from being absorbed into the same downward spiral.
Daffodil Family Centre offers 12-week residential parenting assessments, helping parents to come to grips with parenting skill issues affecting the safety and welfare of their child. The process identifies what changes need to be made, always focusing on the best outcomes for the child’s long-term future while also considering the needs of the parents.
Southwest Women’s Spark Project
In 2021, Trevi secured almost £900,000 to deliver Southwest Women’s Spark Project. Spark aims to prevent women with multiple disadvantages from being affected by violence and abuse, ultimately achieving a better quality of life. This is accomplished through 24/7 support via a wraparound outreach programme incorporating trauma-informed Assertive Outreach Practitioners (AOPs), fast-track access to women-only supported accommodation, practical and therapeutic support, and a violence prevention programme in schools. Round-the-clock AOPs work alongside women, supporting them to come forward and seek help, and signposting, advocating and empowering women to access specialist, early interventions. The AOPs interface with numerous agencies, supporting professionals to spot the earliest signs of abuse and ensure that support is provided at the right time and place, keeping women safe.
The Blossom Appeal
Earlier this year, Trevi launched its Blossom Appeal to raise funds to create safe, trauma-informed women-only accommodation in Plymouth. Without the option of a safe space women can be trapped in abusive relationships or end up sofa-surfing in unsafe, perpetrators’ homes, sometimes locked into a world of drugs and substance misuse, at high risk of increased domestic and sexual violence, or even in fear of their lives. For women to be able to escape these situations, it is essential to have a safe place to stay - like the new Blossom Women’s House. The Blossom Appeal aims to raise £615,000 which will enable Trevi to purchase, decorate and furnish a nearby property, and ensure it is safe and homely for women to heal, grow and thrive.
Trevi invites you to end violence against women and girls by making a donation at trevihouse.enthuse.com/blossom#! or a pledge at trevi.org.uk/pledge-to-our-blossom-appeal - or contact fundraising@trevi.org.uk or 01752 255758 to be sent a donation form.