Support for victims of domestic violence during pandemic welcomed

News of extra funding being provided to Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland during the coronavirus crisis has been welcomed locally.

The Scottish Government is giving an additional £1.5 million to the two charities to support the safety and well-being of women and children who are at risk of experiencing violence during the ‘lockdown’ period and times of self-isolation. A total of grants from the Scottish Government’s £350 million Communities Fund was announced on Tuesday this week.

Scottish Women’s Aid will receive £1.35 million over six months and Rape Crisis Scotland will receive £226,309 over six months.The charities have said this money will be used to enable staff to work more efficiently from home.

Zelda Bradley, Service Manager at Orkney Rape & Sexual Assault Service (ORSAS): “Early last week we outlined our projected needs to the Scottish Government via Rape Crisis Scotland, and we are very grateful that they have recognised this need and responded promptly to help us continue delivering free information, advocacy and support to survivors of sexual violence in Orkney.”

“This funding will enable us to deliver our service in a way that is accessible, safe, secure and confidential, despite being delivered remotely and from workers’ homes, which can be quite challenging in this line of work.

“This money will go towards essentials in the coming months such as upgrades to secure GDPR-compliant video conferencing software, appropriate and secure infrastructure for home-working such as laptops, phones, headsets, printers, etc and secure storage for home offices.

“We are expecting an increase in demand for a number of reasons, and we are glad the government recognises this. We continue to work creatively to take new referrals and support our current caseload of survivors. We also support the families, friends, partners and professionals of survivors.ORSAS will be sharing resources and updates on our social media across the coming months too so keep checking for new developments.”

Michelle Ward service manager with Women’s Aid Orkney added: “The lockdown procedures do not apply to women and children who need help during this period & police Scotland have advised that they will continue to prioritise and respond to domestic abuse call. We know that it could be difficult to make a call with the perpetrator nearby so those needing help can call 999 and when prompted press 55. This will let the operator know help is needed but that they person is unable to speak to them for safety reasons.

“We are already seeing the effect on the lockdown as we have received calls from women new to our service who have experienced new or increased abuse due to the situation. We offer help with safety advice, planning to leave if required, refuge and  help access to emergency housing and signposting to other services.

“The funding from Scottish Government will go towards maintaining the national help line and towards keeping our service paying for staffing costs, extra equipment and travel etc. We also hope to use some of the funding for existing service users to provide comfort packs for those who are self-isolating such as crafts, colouring and puzzles for both women and children. So far we have sent out 23 packs.”

• Orkney Rape & Sexual Assault Service (ORSAS) can be contacted on 01856 872298 between 9am and 4pm Mondays to Thursdays, and they can be emailed on contact@orsas.scot Rape Crisis Scotland National Helpline 08088 010302 6pm-midnight
• Womens Aid Orkney are maintaining a service where we can be contacted by phone, text email or their Facebook page for help. They are also offer online face-to-face meetings if safe to do so. People can also contact the National Domestic Abuse Help line on 0800 027 1234, which is running 24 hours a day seven days a week.