J9 Domestic Abuse Initiative
Delivered live by Lucy Whittaker, Founding Director and Lead Trainer of Alpha Vesta.
Introduction: Alpha Vesta have written and launched an updated ‘J9 Awareness Session’ and developed an ‘Accredited Safe Space’ model which is now being funded through a number of different avenues across the County of Essex, including Community Safety Partnerships, SETDAB, an OPFCC Community Safety Grant and Essex County Council.
Anyone can attend the free one hour online session which has been designed to help recognise, respond and refer anyone that may be experiencing domestic abuse at the earliest opportunity. This is not about trying to fix this or attempting to take on the role of a specialist support worker, but to encourage someone to access support themselves by showing them you understand and what advice, help and support is out there.
The J9 initiative within Essex is also aimed at public and customer facing groups, businesses and organisations who are ideally placed to provide ‘Safe Spaces‘ within our communities. This could be a local coffee shop, retailer, library, sports or leisure facility, food bank, salon, pre-school, the list goes on, but it is through the connection with local residents and families that provides us with the opportunity to support everyone’s basic human right to live a life without abuse and to be able to seek help at the earliest opportunity should they need to.
To become a fully accredited J9 Essex Safe Space, at least two thirds of your team will need to complete J9 awareness session. Alpha Vesta will then arrange to visit your premises to deliver in person your J9 Safe Space Toolkit which includes window sticker and pin badges. As with any individual that completes the session, a post course email will be shared with supporting resources providing the opportunity to request a certificate of attendance or join our J9 Quarterly Networking Meeting.
Please share and encourage friends, family and colleagues to book one of our monthly J9 sessions or alternatively depending on the size of your organisation we can offer private J9 sessions. Please contact us via email j9essex@alphavesta.com if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further.