Representation by Women's Aid in Luton (Women's Aid in Luton)
- Date submitted
- 6 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Non-statutory organisations
I am writing on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Women’s Aid in Luton, and we are pleased to learn that Luton Rising has submitted an application that will support Luton’s airport long-term sustainable growth. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the long-standing benefit that we have been receiving from the company and express our full support for the application for development consent. Women’s Aid in Luton are a well-established Luton based charity with 50 years of experience providing a range of confidential and trauma informed services for women and their children affected by domestic violence and abuse. Our confidential services provide practical help, emotional support and/or a temporary safe place to be. We aim to enable women to be empowered to live a life of wellbeing, free from abuse. Women’s Aid in Luton offer the only Luton Borough Council commissioned emergency refuges for up to 24 women and 26 children at any time. Domestic Abuse can cause or exacerbate other vulnerabilities, including poor mental health, self-harming, substance misuse. We also provide a culturally specific service for South Asian women, supported by staff representing the communities they serve who speak Punjabi and Urdu. We aim to ensure that women: • are safe (no woman is turned away), accessing refuge accommodation when needed. • benefit from tailored, consistent, and holistic Domestic Abuse support. • cope and recover, avoiding further domestic abuse or exploitation in the future, and be empowered to take control of their own lives. We work to create a positive environment for children who come to our refuges, providing support from play therapy to group work to practicalities such as arranging new school places, and ensuring a child has the right uniform. We also provide group work, to help women better understand how domestic abuse has impacted their lives and encourage the peer support that can be so helpful. It goes without saying that the funding received from Luton Rising has been a major contributor to ensure the financial stability of the charity as well as making sure that we are meeting the needs of our beneficiaries. We have been fortunate to receive funding for many years from Luton Rising for a range of projects and are particularly grateful for the funding received to host our helpline provision as it provides the backbone for our service. The funding has enabled us to employ dedicated staff who facilitate the Helpline phone, email and drop ins which are the gateways to any of our internal services we provide as well as allowing us to give information, support and guidance to individuals who contact us and who may not be requiring refuge and wanting to know what Domestic Violence and Abuse support is available either locally or nationally. We offer support to any woman that calls our helpline and if it is a man, we will signpost to other relevant services with a focus on how to keep safe in their current situation, when they may be still living, in a relationship or unable to stop contact for any reason. We give information on how to make a safer exit plan from the violence experienced as leaving or planning to leave the control of the perpetrator is the time where women are at most risk of homicide. An average of 7 women are murdered every month because of domestic abuse in England and Wales. Staying alive is therefore a critical outcome. A call to our Helpline is often the first step where the individual admits that they are being subjected to Domestic Abuse and we ensure that the individual is believed and encouraged to make their own informed decisions on how to proceed at their own pace. We can offer Refuge either in our own Refuges if it is appropriate and safe or we can access Refuges in other areas using’ Routes to Support’ which is a national live database locating availability of Refuges spaces all over the United Kingdom. We are the only access to this database in Luton. We also give information, support and guidance to professionals who call our Helpline to ensure that they can give their clients the current advice and support around Domestic Abuse. From April 2022 to December 2022 alone, 273 women benefited directly from this grant, and we have been fortunate to receive funding for 2023. I hope this clearly describes how impactful the funding has been to Women’s Aid in Luton and the long-standing social impact that has being created as a result. I am particularly impressed with Luton Rising’s aligned organisational values and their lateral thinking particularly when it comes to creating the building blocks for a thriving Luton community through applying a systems change approach that aims to achieve sustainable change and builds community cohesion. It is important to note that his funding has not only benefited Women’s Aid in Luton but many of our partner organisations which has enabled sustaining such a vibrant and unrivalled voluntary and community sector and the development of long standing collaboration. This has undoubtedly benefited a wide range of Luton residents. Having reviewed the consultation documents we were particularly keen to understand the longer term social, economic and environmental impacts the airport expansion will have on Luton residents and surrounding areas and were astounded to see the positive impact the Luton Rising funding has already made but more importantly how much more could be achieved in the future through a possible airport expansion. It is our understanding that it is Luton Rising’s intention to increase the amount of financial support provided to voluntary, community and charitable organisations in Luton which Women’s Aid in Luton could benefit greatly from. This exceeded £9m in 2019 and has been maintained at £7.4m during the pandemic and there is potential for this to increase by an additional £13m per year by the mid-2040s. The airport also supports economic activity of £1.8bn per year and 27,000 jobs in the region at present. The growth of the airport would enable its capacity to increase from 18 to 32 million passengers per year and could support an increase in economic activity of £1.6bn per year as well as creating 4,600 new jobs in Luton. What is particularly reassuring to Women’s Aid in Luton is that Luton Rising have been placing equal importance on ensuring that any environmental impact relating to the airport expansion is undertaken in a green and sustainable way. We understand that Luton Rising intends to set limits for carbon emissions, air quality, noise, and traffic alongside a commitment that this will be legally binding and more importantly monitored independently. Women’s Aid have been a major beneficiary of the grant funding received by Luton Rising and we fully support their ambitions and application for development consent.