Domestic abuse charity Solace has launched a campaign to back its emergency fund, helping women and children this winter.
The charity says demand for support is higher than ever before, and it has partnered with Wavemaker and Hearst media to launch a campaign that shows women and children escaping domestic abuse, who are left with nothing.
More than half of women fleeing abuse lose their tenancy, according to Solace, and 30% of women are turned away from safe housing more than six times.
This newspaper's There With You This Winter campaign has highlighted the challenges and hardships facing many families as Christmas approaches.
Last year Solace launched an emergency fund which helps women who have nothing reach basic needs like buying food, warm clothes in the winter and a bed for them to sleep in. This year the fund is more in need than ever, with the reversal of the universal credit benefit uplift and rising cost of living.
Judith Banjoko, Solace’s joint interim CEO, said: “It has been wonderful working with Wavemaker over the last year to create this campaign. Every day women are coming to our services with absolutely nothing as it gets colder and benefits are cut, we have to do more to make sure women and children who have fled abuse have their basic needs met.
"This campaign will make sure we can do everything we can to make sure they are safe and warm, and have the chance to start a new life free from violence and abuse.”
Wavemaker chief talent officer Robert Jane said: “Solace provide invaluable support to individuals and families facing and fleeing violence at home. At Wavemaker we are honoured and very proud to have formed a long term partnership with the Solace team."
He said he hopes the campaign provides help to those who need it most, and "brings home to everyone the real horrors for those suffering at the hands of domestic violence and why the work Solace do is so important in the communities we all live in”.
For more information and to make a donation visit www.solacewomensaid.org
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