We very much appreciate the award of £1,500 Community Chest funding by Boston Big Local in December 2018.
This grant is towards decorating and improving one of our family rooms in refuge.
We have not, to date, been able to refurbish the room we want to do, because since last October the pressure on our refuge accommodation in Boston has been so high that we have not been able to close a room for a week.
The crisis in need for refuge accommodation for victims of domestic abuse and their families has been further heightened by the closure of some women’s refuges in the East Midlands due to cuts in national and local government funding, so we find greater pressure than ever is placed on our service here in Boston; currently we are running at an occupancy rate approaching 100% all the time and have to turn families away.
The award from the Community Chest is ring-fenced and as soon as we can release the relevant family room for a week we will get it decorated and re-furnished. We hope that, in the Spring, we may see a reduction in pressure as once the days lengthen the cases of domestic abuse do, historically, tend to reduce slightly.
As for the impact that this money will make: when families flee domestic abuse they usually leave with nothing but the possessions they can carry, often whilst the perpetrator is absent for a short time. They are then housed in the shared accommodation of a refuge, where the family shares one large room with a communal kitchen and lounge shared with the other families in refuge. To give them the best start it is important that the family feels comfortable in their new surroundings, so to be able to offer a room that is clean, comfortable, warm and homely is key, especially when everything is very strange.
The £1,500 from BBL’s Community Chest will enable us to make sure that one of our family rooms is improved to be a “home from home” for traumatised children and Mums.
To support the Boston Women’s Aid please visit www.bostonwomensaid.org.uk/