The Women’s Aid movement in Northern Ireland began in 1975 and is made up of eight local Women’s Aid groups and Women’s Aid Federation. Each Women’s Aid group offers a range of specialist services to women, children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse. They are all members of Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland.
Our mission
Women’s Aid exists to challenge attitudes, structures and systems which perpetuate domestic abuse. We seek through our work to enable women, children and young people to live free from violence and abuse.
Our core aims
We will work collectively across Northern Ireland to:
- engage with women, children and young people, to give them a voice and ensure they inform all aspects of service development and delivery.
- provide trauma informed support services to women, children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse.
- deliver preventative education programmes in schools and community settings to promote healthy non-abusive relationships and share key safeguarding messages.
- educate and inform the public, private, voluntary, statutory and community sectors of the context and impact of domestic abuse.
- provide quality assured education and training to a wide audience, to increase capacity to respond to domestic abuse.
- monitor, influence and respond to government policy and legislation as a Subject Matter Expert, giving a voice to survivors of domestic abuse.
- work in partnership, sharing our expertise with all relevant agencies to ensure a joined-up response to domestic abuse.