This campaign has now closed
Specialist domestic abuse refuges save lives and provide space for women and children to recover and begin to build their lives. Help us build a new refuge in Havant with space for 9 families, where an additional 35-45 women and 80-100 children can be safely housed and supported every year.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
In Hampshire in 2023/24, more than 150 victims were turned away from refuge due to lack of space and or capacity to support their specialist needs (e.g. wheelchair access, substance misuse, complex family needs). The current refuge network pan-Hampshire only offers one fully accessible/adapted disabled refuge unit (one bed), whilst 13% of our clients have a physical disability. Nationally only 0.9% of refuge vacancies in 2023 could accommodate a woman requiring a wheelchair accessible space.
Solution
The new refuge will only be available to single women and women with their children as we know that single-sex spaces reduce their distress and trauma. It will provide flexible space to accommodate large or small families. The refuge will increase bed spaces by 7% in Hampshire, providing new, purpose-built safe accommodation for more women and children. It will provide two specialist adapted refuge accommodation units for disabled women/children tripling our disabled refuge accommodation offer.
