Warwickshire’s Feeling Safe Group in line for top award
A pioneering Warwickshire project helping children and young people affected by domestic abuse has been nominated for a top award.
Kate Burns and Linda Paine from Warwickshire County Council’s Domestic Abuse Social Work Service and Victoria Hill, Consultant Clinical Psychologist (CAMHS) at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (NHS), have been nominated for a Health and Social Care Award in recognition of their groundbreaking project, the ‘Feeling Safe Group’.
The Warwickshire group will be attending the regional heat of the Health and Social Care Awards at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham on 15 April. The aim of the awards is to celebrate excellence in health and social care and to encourage partnership working across organisations.
The Feeling Safe programme is one of the first resources of its kind to specifically address the needs of children and young people who experience domestic abuse. ‘Feeling Safe’ has already won the support of the Ragdoll Foundation – a charity founded by Ragdoll Productions, award-winning producers of children’s television programmes.
The Ragdoll Foundation sponsored the programme so that it could be published and used more widely by organisations working with children and young people nationally.
Chris Hallett, Head of Children In Need at Warwickshire County Council and Chair of the Warwickshire Safeguarding Children Board, said: “This nomination is a tribute to the hard work and commitment of the Feeling Safe Group who are not only helping children and young people in Warwickshire affected by domestic abuse but are also sharing a powerful resource with countless others around the country”.
The Feeling Safe programme involves a weekly course for women and children to explore their own experiences and look at positive ways of dealing with their feelings in a safe way. Group work with children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse has been shown to be an effective and powerful use of resources as it reduces feelings of isolation and helps children to understand that the abuse was not their fault.