Last month Safer Cornwall hosted a DASV systems day, bringing agencies, professionals and experts by experience together to learn, share and celebrate.
The morning focused on how we can drive forward the new DASV and VAWG strategies in areas such as prevention, improving access to services, criminal justice system, behaviour change and housing. This was followed by an afternoon sharing learning and recent successes from across the system.
Danny Byrne, senior lead of the Change4U programme of Safer Futures, provided an informative and insightful talk around behaviour change, how the service supports adults and children who experience abuse through the Change 4U, Reconnect and The Healthy Relationships Programme, with a whole family approach and trauma informed lens.
Row Jackson, LGBTQ+ IDVA, provided a detailed and thought-provoking presentation about the Safer Rainbow service which provides support to those from the LGBT+ community who have been impacted by domestic abuse. The presentation also covered the additional complexities and barriers that those from this community face when it comes to seeking support.
Louise Knight, DASV Implementation Lead, presented some of the key findings from the local Older Persons Pilot co delivered by Age UK and The Women’s Centre Cornwall. Through community engagement with older people impacted by domestic abuse and sexual violence the pilot has developed a key set of recommendations that will improve our system response.
Julia Morris and Anne Toms, from Safer Futures, provided an informative presentation about Cornwall’s Primary Care Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Service. We heard about how the service has gone from strength to strength, engaging local GP surgeries and being able to provide support to people who would not have accessed services otherwise.
Finally, Kate Moss from Harbour Housing, inspired the room describing the Eva service; safe accommodation provision that supports women who have experienced domestic abuse and are impacted by other vulnerabilities such as drug and alcohol use, and/or mental health issues
Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive with some key themes around collaboration, learning and system development, and some key areas of action and improvement to take forward.
‘Opportunity for even more collaboration’
‘Thank you everyone for today – what an amazing room full of amazing people. I have learnt lots about how other services work’
‘Multi-agency thinking – using other peoples/agencies priorities/focus/practice to consider how our own practice can be improved’
Attendees at the Systems Day
We also ensured a lot of fun was had at the interesting conference venue at Heartlands which celebrates Cornish culture and mining heritage with some cheeky photos of us dressing up 😊 👇
