Peter is a 34 year old single dad. He was referred to Splitz by his Drug and Alcohol Support Worker for Floating Support for him and his son Michael. Michael is 2 years old and a typical little boy.
When I met Peter he was living in a 1 bed flat with Michael in a rural area with no easy links to shops etc. Peter has a medical condition that means he struggles to walk long distances, he is also quite large and suffers with other ailments. Peter had been on the housing register for a long time and hopes to get a 2 bed so that Michael could have his own bedroom. Peter was also hoping to move closer to his family as they were a good support to him. Although Peter had a housing support worker this service had been quite inconsistent as his regular worker had gone on long term sick and he had several new workers in quick succession.
While supporting Peter he managed to get a new home. We helped him with filling in the relevant documentation. We went to view the property with him with his housing officer and eventually helped him move. We also assisted him in applying for grants for a bed for Michael and other items of furniture and white goods. We also spoke to the organisation that was giving him housing related support and he now has a regular support worker who he is building a good relationship with.
Peter needed support to working out contact arrangements with Michael's mother. Peter has had a difficult relationship with Michael's mother and there has been inconsistent contact. We have advised Peter to seek legal advice and helped him reach decisions regarding Michael's safety whilst he visits his mum.
We have also helped peter in other areas: general housekeeping, cooking for his son, accessing nurseries and activities for Michael and general advice on day to day living. Peter is making good progress and settling in well to his new home.
I first met with Alice and Janice in April 2008. I was very concerned that due to Janice witnessing horrendous domestic abuse towards mum from her father that she herself was acting out her father’s behaviour. Janice was very physical at home with mum and on occasions was violent with members of the local community and at school. Furthermore, Janice was continuing to witness abuse when she had contact with her father at weekends towards his new partner.
Janice father also consistently told her that she was the reason behind his abusive behaviour and she was not his child. He often threatened her with his own suicide and the death of her or her mother.
This was having a huge impact on Janice behaviour and she was becoming more and more violent towards her mother and peers. She was becoming more and more frustrated and could not control her anger towards other people and property.
I talked to Janice about her behaviour and her feelings towards her father, mother and stepmother. We discussed her feelings and how she could manage her anger. Janice was very cross with herself because she had witnessed her father stuff a sock down her stepmother’s throat and then proceeded to throw her down the stairs. When the police arrived Janice was so upset with her father that she told the police she would write a statement witnessing what she had seen. However, due to family pressure she then refused to make a statement against her father. Janice was very angry and upset with herself as she had witnessed her father throw her mother out of the house naked, dislocate her jaw, fracture her cheek bone, and terrorize the whole family whilst living at home.
I spoke to Janice at length about responsibility and that she could not be held responsible for her father’s abuse. We also discussed that Janice had to take responsibility for her own violent response to other people and how this could be managed.
After 6 individual sessions I invited Janice to the KidzPace group workshop consisting of 12 sessions for 2 hours a week on a Saturday morning. Janice was very keen to join the group because she felt she was the only person who had witnessed such abuse at home and wanted to meet other young people who had similar experiences.
Janice attended all the workshops with 100% attendance. Since attending Janice mother has seen a huge difference in Janice. Mum reported that Janice no longer gets angry and discuses her feelings. The college Janice attends have commented that Janice is not the same girl she was as she is so much calmer, discusses difficult situations with staff to resolve issues, focuses on her work and has passed an English GCSE project on the Splitz KidzPace programme.
Janice father is also due a trial date for trying to strangle her stepmother and Janice has now got the confidence to be a witness against her father in court. She has managed to discuss her reasons for this without getting angry with family members and now they are going to support her actions.
Janice and Alice have had one meeting with comic relief to talk about their experiences and spoke on the local BBC radio regarding the support they have received and how grateful they are to Splitz and Comic Relief. Janice mother stated that “Janice would be in care by now if Splitz had not helped.”
John and Jane are a married couple, both in their mid fifties. They were privately renting a home near Wilton for the past 3 years, where they had been running their own business. Unfortunately John became seriously ill over a period of time, resulting in deterioration of the business. The couple had to pay their rent and other bills with credit cards, accumulating a massive debt.
By the time we met them they had become bankrupt and their car had been repossessed. They were receiving Housing Benefit, but the benefit wasn't covering the full amount of their rent. The top up they had to pay each month meant they only had a small amount left to buy food. This was no good for them as John still had a medical condition that made it important for him to have the right foods.
The couple required support to gain alternative accommodation and assistance to maximise their income. They were only receiving Income Support. It was a long process, but in the meantime we managed to deliver them a weekly food box from the Trussel Trust (a local charity which make up food boxes for people in crisis). We applied for Disability Living Allowance: it was refused. We wrote to appeal: this too was refused. So we gathered more information from hospital consultants, GP, etc and wrote a covering letter outlining our reason why we felt John was eligible.
During this time we were also liaising continuously with the district council housing department. John and Jane were not being treated as a priority as they weren't regarded as 'homeless'. It became so desperate that a local councillor decided to get involved. The couple eventually gained enough medical points for a two-bedroom property. But it didn't end there. The Council offered a temporary one-bedroom house. This was no good: both John and Jane had medical conditions which meant they not only needed two bedrooms, but moving twice would be too much for them.
Eventually, the couple were offered a permanent two-bedroom ground floor flat with garden. And at the same time, their appeal for Disability Living Allowance came through, and they received over £1000 in backdated benefit. We liaised with social services to have an occupational assessment, which resulted in a shower being fitted.
The couple have now settled. And have enough money coming each week to cover bills, food and their new passion for gardening! John and Jane have been very grateful to Community4, as they would not have had the knowledge, strength or motivation to achieve this by themselves.
Joan had referred herself to our service after separating from her husband. This was a difficult time for her and she felt that it might help her to talk to someone. Joan referred herself to us after seeing a leaflet at her doctors. Joan was unsure about our service and how we might be able to help, but found it comforting to know that we would be able to visit her in her own home.
Joan had experienced abuse from her husband for a number of years before finding the courage to make the break and separate from him. When we first met her she was still going through her divorce, this is still ongoing as she is now waiting for the financial settlement to be agreed; Joan finds this really difficult as she still has to attend court, and she finds it hard having to face him. We have attended with her and supported her through this, we have also talked about what her options are, and this allows her to bounce around ideas before she has to make a final commitment.
Joan found it really helpful to talk about her abusive relationship, and felt safe to talk about things that she might have found difficult to tell other people, including her family. Although they were supportive of her she felt that it might upset them.
Joan has two children and realised that they were also struggling to come to terms with their mum and dad divorcing, she asked if we could help them, we explained the services that we could offer to her and together we discussed what she felt would be of most help and suitable for her children. The oldest child is receiving support from our services, he has a support worker who visits him on a one to one basis and he will be joining the next children’s group, due to the constraints of our funding we were unable to offer any support to her youngest child and we have signposted her to another agency who can provide support to her youngest child.
As we continued to meet and Joan’s confidence began to grow we looked at how it might benefit Joan to meet other people who had experienced something similar, also Joan was keen to learn more about what had happened to her, so we suggested that she might like to attend the Making Changes workshops. Joan works part time and for her to attend she would need to have some time off, she felt confident enough to speak to her employer herself and they agreed that she could change her hours to allow her to attend the workshops.
Joan enjoyed the workshops and really benefited from attending the group, she has made friends with some other ladies who attended and they meet regularly for coffee, as well as texting and supporting each other.
Helen was a 20 year old, single mother of a 9 month old baby. Helen had recently escaped an abusive relationship of 5 years, having been with her partner since the age of 15. He was 4 years older than her. Helen was severely dyslexic and illiterate. She had no concept of managing finances, nor making decisions for herself without others approval. Helen sustained routine physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse at the hands of her partner throughout their relationship.
The partner was also in relations with another woman at the same time as Helen and had two other children with that woman also. He was abusive to that woman, to the extent that there were concerns about her mental health and ability to care for the children. Both children were placed in care and eventually adopted. Social Services also had involvement with Helen to monitor her care of her child.
The partner has a criminal record detailing numerous domestic violence incidents and physical assaults.
Helen was moved to two different safe houses because the ex partner always managed to locate her and assault her. Helen had no supporting friends or family. In June 2008 the ex partner traced Helen to her new home, forced entry and hit her with a table leg across her head, following 2 days of holding her hostage and subjecting her to horrific abuse. When he was discovered to be in the property by a visiting worker, the police were called and he was removed. The police took no further action against him. Helen lost all faith in the authorities and felt she was disbelieved.
Helen was referred to our Paloma project in September 2008. She was extremely depressed, lonely and full of self blame and loathing. She completed our Making Changes programme, whilst engaging in one to one support with her worker. The two combined empowered her into realising that she was not a victim, but in fact a survivor. With our help and reassurance her faith in the authorities was slowly restored and she began to report the incidents pertaining to her ex’s behaviour to the police. Her property was secured and a ‘flag’ placed on her address and telephone numbers in case she had to dial 999. Helen was referred to MARAC as she was assessed as a high risk case, which placed all relevant bodies on alert to her circumstances. Helen was able, with support, to put in place safety plans for her self and her daughter, making her feel safe and secure not only in her own home but also when out and about.
The ex partner’s behaviour continued and he began monitoring her movements and hanging around her home at night opposite windows. With continued support, Helen called the police every time she saw him and also sought legal advice in relation to injunctive and children act proceedings. Legal matters are ongoing to date, but after a few months of solicitors’ involvement the ex partner ceased his behaviour because he realised that Helen was becoming stronger and had more conviction in the decisions she was making, thus his power and control over her was decreasing.
Helen was given information about groups in her area and she made the decision to attend a Mother and Baby group and also a parenting programme, through which she made friends and felt less isolated.
Helen was signposted to organisations that could help her manage her finances and is now in complete control of them, albeit finances are tight. She has also decided to look for work to enable her to regain her independence and support her daughter and herself and also wishes to study for her English and maths qualifications in due course.
Social Services have taken the decision to close their files because they are satisfied that there are no further concerns regarding this mother and her child. Helens self esteem has increased greatly and she is confident that she has been empowered with enough knowledge that she can make decisions on her own with little, if no self doubt and also knows where to get information should she need it.