As we have now reached the start of October, we observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Futures. Our organisation has always aimed to tackle domestic violence, through our productions and engagement programmes such as Thrive. This month we want to highlight how widespread and insidious the issue is - 🎗Domestic Violence is defined by Women’s Aid as an incident or a pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour. This can be done by a partner/ex-partner, family member or carer 🎗1 in 4 women have experienced domestic abuse from the age of 16 (ONS, 2023a) 🎗At least one woman a week was killed by a male partner/ex-partner between April 2019 and March 2022 (ONS, 2023b) 🎗It is never the fault of the victim. 🎗It can affect anyone regardless of their age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and socio-economic status. 🎗There is always help available. If you or anyone you know could or has been a victim of domestic violence, please see the helplines below for support and advice: • Refuge’s National Domestic Abuse Helpline – 0808 2000 247 • Ascent Advice Line - 0808 801 0660 • National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline - 0800 999 5428 • Victim Support - 0808 1689 111 • Honour Network Helpline - 0800 599 9247 #domesticviolenceawarenessmonth #dvawarenessmonth #domesticviolence #domesticabuse #womensaid #womenstheatre (fb)

We enjoyed such a beautiful day @kewgardens with Thrive participants. Thank you to the community team for welcoming us to the Community Open Week. As well as spending lots of time in the gardens, we loved sitting in the community tent and creating our own 'Tree of Life'. This open week initiative is fantastic 🌳🌳🌳 (fb)