White Ribbon Day
As part of White Ribbon Day we wanted to thank men who are working across Cambridgeshire to support victims of domestic abuse or raising awareness of the White Ribbon campaign.
Below is Marc James from Embrace Child Victims of Crime - Marc has a long history of working in the Domestic Abuse field first with Ormiston Trust and now with Embrace Child Victims of Crime for whom he delivers support for both victims and perpetrators. Marc was instrumental in the creation of Embrace’s Time4U counselling service working hard to establish pathways to the service from a range of public sector partners. Time4U is a counselling and psychotherapy service for children and young people who have been affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence. This includes young people who have witnessed, or have been affected by, violence in their home. Time4u offers the opportunity for children and young people to talk to someone who is trained to listen carefully and not judge.
Two successful short term bids to the Home Office have enabled the service to be offered to young people aged 13 – 18 years (and up to 24 years with additional needs) through the Violence Against Women and Girls Transformation fund, and also to children aged 7-12 through the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse fund. To date 317 children have been supported in 2018/19 and 128 so far in 2019/20. In addition to delivering direct support Marc has also developed a programme to support the parents of teenagers enrolled in the Time4U service.
Andy Jarvis is the Partnership and Developing Practice Manager within Children Services Early Help in Cambridgeshire. One of the projects he has been involved in this year has been the roll out of the Reducing Parental Conflict Programme. This aims to train professionals and offer interventions to parents who may be experiencing conflict in their relationships. A key element in this programme is ensuring that professionals are accurately able to identify the difference between conflict and abuse within a relationship. Andy has been instrumental in developing an intimate relationships spectrum for Cambridgeshire that will help practitioners to do just this. Andy has also been an active key member of our Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Operations Group and we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his hard work this year to support domestic abuse work and the White Ribbon Campaign.
Phil West and Darren Turney are family workers from the Fenland District who put themselves forward to be trained to deliver the Caring Dad's programme. This year has seen the first Caring Dad’s programme running in Cambridgeshire, which is a 17 week programme that aims to contribute to the safety and well-being of children through a group parenting intervention for fathers. The Caring Dads programme was the first, and is still one of the only, intervention programs worldwide that is designed to specifically address the needs of fathers who have been abusive in their families. Phil and Darren have since been instrumental in organising and running the first course, which ran in Huntingdon over the summer. Without the hard work of Phil, Darren and their fellow facilitators, CCC would have been unable to run this valuable programme. Phil said “ It’s been a privilege to see the men that we have worked with go from denial and resistance, to acceptance and taking responsibility for their actions, and making positive changes to their relationships with their partners and children”
Gil Karpas is a local musician and one of Cambridgeshire County Council's White Ribbon Ambassadors. Gil said “I am proud to be a white ribbon ambassador because it is important for men to signal clearly to other men that trust, respect, equality and love are integral in healthy relationships. They are also the bedrock values of a healthy society. Music, the arts and the entertainments is a place the where meritocracy of talent is celebrated. It should be a given that those women working on the industry are respected for their talent and contribution that they make. Equally those women who attend events are safe from stalking, harassment, and violence of any kind. It is down to men to help others to make that culture change and for that reason I am working with musicians, promoters and venues to get the message out to both the industry and the audiences in Cambridgeshire.''
Dan Middleton is the lead for Domestic Abuse within Cambridgeshire Constabulary. He joined the Constabulary in 1991 where he spent several years as a patrol officer before joining the CID as a Detective in 1996. Since then he has worked on a number of teams, being promoted to Detective Inspector, and taking on the force lead for domestic abuse two years ago. He has been responsible for developing policy and practice to drive improvements in service delivery for victims and children. He leads a multi-agency Scrutiny Group, to identify gaps in performance and helped to develop strategies and delivery plans to embed the National Best Practice framework, in conjunction with a range of criminal justice partners. He also currently chairs the local perpetrator panel which considers high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators. He has been instrumental in several forthcoming developments within the police force and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Dan for all his hard work and dedication to supporting victims of domestic abuse.