Merseyside Domestic Violence Services is targeting men in a bid to break the pattern of domestic abuse.
It says despite 15 years of helping women the instances of domestic abuse are largely unchanged.
“We need to work with the men in order to break the cycle,” says Jacqui Nasuh, project manager for the Liverpool organisation. “We have been helping thousands of women – all of which is valuable – but the statistics haven’t changed since 1999.
“That tells us something, and we had to ask are we making a difference?”
Clearly, she admits, the organisation has made a difference because it has provided advice and help for many women and their families.
We have to target the abuser
But Jacqui says MDVS realised that in order to make a dint in the figures, it had to target the perpetrator too.
“Over the years we have worked with many women, one to one, but we realised we were helping the women to move on but the perpetrators were moving on to someone else, to continue the cycle.
“We needed to work with the male perpetrators, so we began our own programme with which we have just moved into the second year.
“And we have been inundated with referrals from children services which is really good, and hopefully will enable us to make a difference to women and children.”
She adds: “Unless you break the cycle it’s just going to carry on, and the children who witness violence may go on to become either victims or perpetrators themselves.”
MDVS works with non-convicted men and says their response is already positive.
The only drawback is that the work the charity is now undertaking with men with just £278,000 funding, is affecting the work they can do with the women.
Jacqui says the government spends billions of pounds dealing with the after-effects of domestic violence, either due to court and prison costs, NHS costs, social services, child protection and more…
But she says they could save money if they helped combat the problems before they arose.
“We spend money treating rather than preventing the problem.
“If the government listened to people like us, on the front line, they could save money but, crucially, help stop the cycle, and the destruction and damage caused to, predominantly, women and children.