‘A Festival of Practice’

Cohort 4 were seen and contacted by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Office in late 2022 and were invited to present their peer mentoring approach to supporting women with experience of domestic and/or sexual abuse at the first conference held by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Office, ‘A Festival of Practice.’ Beverley and Rebecca presented a session considering the longer term support needs for survivors of abuse, especially those with disabilities or those experiencing multiple disadvantage. The positive impact of longer term kindness and inclusion in a community of women seems to work well for Cohort 4 and is something that is generally missing in communities where crisis, short term or single issue services are generally the limits to support. There are few specialist support organisations around the country for women who have disabilities or longer term needs and the Commissioner recognised that this is a gap that requires attention. Her strategic plan outlined priorities of standing with victims; improve support for the most marginalised survivors of domestic abuse; improve consistency of service provision and statutory services, to address the ‘patchwork of provision’ across England and Wales.

Accredited Peer Mentoring Training – Social Enterprise

We spoke about our OCN Level 3 accredited peer mentoring training and Beverley’s own PhD research examining peer mentoring with women who have multiple and complex disadvantage in England. When we come together as a community, we can make a profound difference in each other’s lives. ‘By and for’ organisations and community groups were recognised at this conference by the commissioner herself and it was good to link in with funders and commissioners all interested to hear what we do in North Warwickshire.

Innovation in the DV support sector

Cohort 4 shared their afternoon session with Rebecca Branch of Luminary Bakery and Polly from the Sharan Project and EDAC. The audience felt that the whole session showed some welcome relief and positivity where the general subject area is one where you might be forgiven to feel a sense of despair given the statistics and ever terrible consequences for those experiencing abusive homes. Commissioners and funders approached Beverley and Rebecca after the session to ask for further information and wanted to enquire about the peer mentoring training, how to set up peer mentoring safely and several wished that they had a ‘Cohort 4’ local to them.  Cohort 4’s friends Jo and Sheree were at the event from Feathers Futures, another amazing community of women, very like Cohort 4 but located in east coast Great Yarmouth.

Cohort 4 are a peer led, peer support and peer mentoring group based in Atherstone, North Warwickshire.