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Victim of domestic abuse looking out of a window

Experience of
Domestic Abuse

We are passionate about working with people who have been affected by domestic abuse. Meeting people where they are at, and coming alongside them to help empower them, ensures that they can build their self-confidence and enter the future with hope.

As part of our aim to encourage and empower women, Handcrafted offers the Own My Life course specifically targeted at women who have experienced domestic abuse. This is an innovative, creative and educational 12-week course that seeks to support women in regaining ownership of their lives whilst explaining key concepts in easy to understand terms.

We also aim to support women by offering a safe and friendly environment to explore their creative skills with a variety of craft activities available at the women’s groups that run across the 4 hubs in Gateshead, Chester le Street, Durham and Sunderland. Many of the women enjoy woodwork sessions, making various projects ranging from garden benches to bird boxes!

In addition to learning new skills, each session provides the opportunity to socialise and chat along with refreshments and a chance to make new friends.

Image depicting someone helping another person up a mountain

Testimonials

There are countless challenges and barriers between our Fairchance service users and a healthy, productive and satisfying life.

We often use the term ‘chaotic lifestyle’ to describe the multitude of issues they face, and we contrast this lifestyle with an ideal that is secure, positive, stable and fulfilling. Often people looking in on the lifestyles of our service users find them intimidating, disorientating and full of risk – it should be no surprise that the same is true the other way around. For our service users who are looking into employment, education and stable accommodation, what they often see is a very unfamiliar culture and environment that they are unable to navigate.

Handcrafted helps to bridge this gap. It’s a middle ground between work and leisure where our service users are building confidence, self-esteem, working relationships, responsibilities, a sense of achievement. As a natural consequence of this and armed with the skills necessary to make this transition our service users are developing goals and ambitions and making plans for the futures that they are beginning to see as a reality for themselves.

Joe K, Fair Chance Project, Oasis Aquila Housing