We are proud to pledge our support to a national campaign to tackle domestic abuse in our communities.
The Make a Stand campaign focuses on a commitment to tackle domestic abuse in housing, which was developed by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) in partnership with the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) and Women’s Aid.
Andrei Szatkowski, Executive Director of Operations at Aspire Housing, commented: “Domestic abuse, be it emotional, physical or sexual, is an incredibly serious issue which affects millions of people every year.
“We house and employ thousands of people across Staffordshire and Cheshire, so it stands to reason that some of our customers and colleagues may be suffering, or have suffered, from domestic abuse.
“We are committed to ensuring that we have policies in place to help and support anybody who may be suffering from domestic abuse, and we will strive to direct people to seek local support services whenever necessary.”
Read how domestic violence affected this 35-year-old in our region.
Aspire Housing is one of more than 100 organisations to sign up for the campaign within two weeks of its launch in June. The housing providers collectively own and manage around 1.2 million homes – a quarter of all social housing in the UK.
Alison Inman, CIH President, said: “We are simply amazed by the response of the UK housing sector to our Make a Stand campaign.
“We wanted this pledge to be the start of a commitment by our sector to do much more to protect the many millions of people across the UK who experience domestic abuse every year and we’re so pleased organisations have welcomed it with open arms.
“By signing up to put in place the four focused actions in the pledge, the organisations that have joined us have made a very real difference and will help people who are experiencing domestic abuse to come forward and get support.
“To have done this across a quarter of social housing in the UK in our first two weeks is phenomenal and a testament to the determination of the housing sector to do more on this issue.
“We’re so encouraged to see so many organisations take this up and hope that many more will join us.”
Make a Stand centres around four focused actions:
- To put in place and embed a policy to support residents who are experiencing domestic abuse
- To make information about national and local domestic abuse support services available on your website and in other places which are easily accessible to residents and staff
- To put in place a HR policy and procedure on domestic abuse, or to incorporate this into an existing policy, to support members of staff who are experiencing domestic abuse
- Appoint a champion in your organisation to own the activity you are doing to support people experiencing domestic abuse
Find out more about the CIH Make a Stand campaign here: http://www.cih.org/makeastand
