Opening Doors: An Evaluation of Befriending as a Recovery Model for Survivors with Mental Health Needs

In 2017 SAFE Link in partnership with Womankind was awarded Home Office Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Transformation Fund funding(applied for on our behalf by Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commission). SAFE Link was funded to provide a specialist Learning Disabilities ISVA and Womankind was funded to provide a specialist befriending service. The partnerships aim was to work together to improve lives and build resilience for the most vulnerable victims of sexual assault who have additional needs linked to either learning difficulties or mental ill-health across Avon & Somerset. VAWG funded a 0.5 FTE Learning Disabilities ISVA at SAFE Link and a 0.5 FTE Befriending Coordinator at Womankind for 3 years. An added aim of the project was to transform partnership working. The project aspired to raise awareness about the number and needs of survivors with Learning Disabilities or mental health issues; to establish clear pathways between services/ agencies; and to share expertise across sexual violence, Learning Disability, and mental health sectors. To reflect the complexity of the work carried outby each organisation the evaluation was in two parts. This evaluation is looking at the impact of the Womankind service. If you would like to see the evaluation ofthe SAFE Link service, or a combined copy of both please contact us. We would like to thank everyone that contributed to the evaluation in particular the victims who used our services.