As part of the What Happens When series we spotlight Juno Women’s Aid and the services you can access from them.
About Juno Women’s Aid:
Juno Women’s Aid is the largest domestic abuse service in Nottingham and supports women and children who have been affected by domestic abuse in Nottingham city and south Nottinghamshire. In the last 12 months they have helped over 5,000 women and taken over 11,000 calls on their 24-hour freephone helpline.
The organisation believes that domestic abuse does not discriminate, “it can happen to all women, of all ages, all colours and all backgrounds, we want to steer away from the stereotype that domestic abuse only happens to certain women of a particular age, background or social class.”
Run for and by women, from head office to front line workers
Services on offer:
24-hour helpline – 0808 800 0340
Completely anonymised and confidential
Always free of charge
Interpreters available for those who don’t speak fluent English
When you call the helpline, you will be heard by a female advisor who will
carry out a risk assessment and ask a range of questions to ensure you receive the best immediate help based on your circumstances. If you are unable to make contact the first time you call, leave your name, number and a safe time for an advisor to call you back.
Once the assessment period is completed, you may be referred into their services and assigned to a support worker who will remain with you throughout your time at Juno Women’s Aid. You will not have to retell your story to anyone else if you don’t want to.
“What if I’m not the person who needs help?”
The helpline isn’t just for the victim of the abuse to ring up, worried family members, professionals working with victims, and friends can call to receive advice on what to do next.
Email Helpline – helpline@junowomensaid.uk
Use this service if you don’t have access to a phone or can’t call safely.
You will be dealt with in the same way as the mobile helpline
Ask for Annie
If you are able to leave home safely and need to safely request support, go to a pharmacy and ‘Ask for Annie’. A pharmacist will take you into a private room and give you access to a phone in which you can ring the helpline.
If you cannot do any of the above, call 999 then key 55 into the keypad after the operator has spoken. This method alerts the operator that you are not in a safe environment to speak but need urgent help.
Services available specifically for minority women:
Juno have a specialist ‘BAMER’ (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee) refuge. Self-contained flats, with individual bathrooms and rooms, which allows individuals to have their own space. There is also a shared communal area where other members of the refuge can spend time and socialise with one another. Support workers can also go in and deliver support to individuals.
Support Workers can speak multiple different languages which helps in supporting multicultural needs and have specific training in obtaining right to remain status for refugee women.
Children and Family Services:
Juno has children refuge workers that work to enable children school placements and ensure that women and their families are getting the educational support they all need.
Juno can offer a dedicated court worker for family court, which can help alleviate stress and anxiety surrounding the whole process and offer expert advice.
The Stronger Families programme is a therapeutic programme for children (aged 5 – 16) and their mothers who’ve experienced domestic abuse.
Educational programmes on offer:
The Freedom Programme
10-week course focussing on behaviours seen in intimate relationships and learning to recognize signs of abuse.
Educating on different types of abuse, different types of perpetrator, different tactics they may use in a relationship and ways to manoeuvre around that.
Alongside being an educational method to teach women about abuse it also creates a peer support group which allows other women going through a similar situation to relate with one another.
School and college interventions
Support workers are able to go into schools and colleges to deliver one-to-one support work to children and young people during term-time.
How has Juno responded to lockdown?
Over the past year the cases of domestic abuse have risen almost two-fold. As the UK went into “lockdown”, Juno was unable to deliver their face-to-face services and instead moved to online and telephone support. During the pandemic, call to Juno’s helpline increased, on average, by 58% in comparison to the same period the year before. Juno heavily invested in new technology and increased helpline staffing to meet demand.
Due to the high volume of calls, Juno advises that on the first call if you don’t reach through to an advisor, you should leave your name, your number and a safe time to call and the helpline will get back in touch within 24 hours. They strongly urge that you provide all three components so that they can reach you in the safest way possible.
Contact details
0808 800 0340
helpline@junowomensaid.uk
If you are hearing impaired, text “Relay/NGT” to 18001 0808 800 0340. This option is available 24-hours a day, 365 days a year.
For further information visit their website: https://junowomensaid.org.uk
By Izzy Parker and Kathryn Embree
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