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Young People Experiencing Domestic and Sexual Abuse

  1. 1. Background

    • The impact of domestic and sexual abuse on young people is widespread: more than 750,000 children and young people witness violence in the home.
    • Young women are almost four times more likely to experience sexual violence than older women.

    Since the early 1990s, Comic Relief has worked to tackle domestic violence at a local and national level. Over the last four years we have focused our grant-making on young survivors: young people who have experienced abuse themselves or have witnessed family violence. This work has given us a clear insight into the critical and often hidden needs faced by this group, and we know that services remain patchy and underfunded. So we continue to see a role for this funding. This year we have widened our focus to include sexual abuse.

  2. 2. Aim of the Programme

    This programme aims to provide support for young people aged 11-25 who have witnessed or directly experienced domestic and sexual abuse and meets one or more of the outcomes listed below.

  3. How do we define ‘domestic and sexual abuse’?

    Our criteria includes: young people who have grown up in homes where they witness violence and harm. It also includes young people directly affected by abuse caused by a family member, by an outsider such as a stranger or family friend, or as a result of their own dating experiences.

    Work will be funded to meet both immediate and longer-term needs. There is no one solution for young people who have grown up in the shadow of abuse; we want to hear from you about what works.

    There are two strands to the open programme:

    • Crisis Support:

      We will fund support services with the aim of helping young survivors to cope with the physical, emotional and mental harm that they have experienced. This could include services such as counselling, advocacy and group work.

      Applications should demonstrate how your support services will build a safer future for young survivors. This could include activities that help young people cope better or increasing their understanding of abuse.

    • Young Voices:

      We will fund work that helps young people to heal through having a voice. This could include setting up a new survivors group or support for an existing group.

      This fund will also cover work which aims to build networks of young survivors who can speak out to policy makers, planners and the sector, so that their views and voices are heard directly.

  4. 3. Outcomes

    The organisations we fund will need to show how their work will help deliver one or more of the following outcomes:

    • Crisis Support:

      Young survivors aged 11-25 feel that support services have helped them to cope and improve their mental and emotional wellbeing.

    • Crisis Support:

      Young survivors aged 11-25 feel that support services have helped to keep them safe and increase their resilience against future harm.

    • Young Voices:

      Young survivors aged 11-25 feel that having a voice and hearing from fellow survivors has helped to progress their healing process.

    • Young Voices:

      Policy makers and planners are more aware of the needs of young survivors.

  5. 4. Who will we fund?

    We welcome applications from a range of agencies who reach young survivors; we will give priority to applications from groups who can demonstrate a track record around domestic and sexual abuse, or work with young survivors.

    This is a funding programme focusing on the needs of survivors aged 11-25; we do not fund work with younger children. We are particularly keen to explore work with young women aged 16-25 in relation to our ‘Young Voices’ initiative, and in order to bridge the gap between adult and children services.

    We welcome applications for work with young boys and young men as well as girls and young women. We recognise the gendered nature of domestic and sexual abuse and would like ALL work to be grounded in an understanding about the dynamics of power and control.

    We are especially keen to encourage applications for work with young people from black and minority ethnic communities as well as hard to reach groups of survivors such as young people excluded from school and young people at risk of homelessness.

  6. 5. Other Important Information

    Defining domestic and sexual abuse in relation to young people is often complicated, with agencies working to different criteria (for example the government only defines domestic abuse survivors from the age of 16). If you would like to talk to us about whether your work meets our criteria please ring us for a chat. Contact us