Deputy Mayor for Policing Fire and Crime visits Harrogate domestic abuse support service

New Beginnings is a domestic abuse support service for women and their living in North Yorkshire. They provide long-term support, both at home and in the community, in the form of group meet-ups and 1:1 sessions designed to provide a safe and secure environment, empowering women and children to rebuild their lives.

Jo Coles, York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime said

One in four women will be a victim of domestic abuse during the course of their lifetime and last year in York and North Yorkshire support services worked with over 14,000 victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. There’s much more we need to do to ensure we support victims in all our communities, in particular in some of the rural areas where it can be hard to access services.

We began the 16 Days of Action with a violence against women and girls summit bringing together stakeholders from across our region to look at what more we can do together to tackle the epidemic of violence facing women and girls. Today I joined survivors of domestic abuse to hear about their experiences and to talk about what more we can do, working together, to improve and expand the support women and girls receive.

In the coming weeks the Mayor and I will be setting out our police, fire and crime priorities and renewing our strategy to ensure we’re doing all we can to reduce the number of women and girls who are victims of violence and abuse each year.

Official figures estimate 2 million women in England and Wales are victims of violence every year, with 20% of adults in these regions being victims of domestic abuse every year.

16 Days of Action is a global campaign to end violence against women and girls, running from 25 November to 10 December. One of the central visions of York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith is to ensure safe places for all residents of our region, prioritising early intervention, tackling violence against women and girls, domestic abuse, anti-social behaviour and rural crime.

On 25 November, the Deputy Mayor began the 16 days of action campaign by hosting a Violence Against Women and Girls Summit  an event which brought together key stakeholders for honest discussions around the responses to disclosures and support available for women and girls, and how they could be improved. The summit also heard from people with lived experience and how they have now dedicated their lives to improving services for victims in the future.

The Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning (OPFCC) will publish a refreshed Strategy to Address Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in Spring 2025. To support this, residents of York and North Yorkshire are being encouraged to complete the ongoing Violence Against Women and Girls Survey to share their experiences and insights.

The OPFCC has also been promoting the broad range of services available to support women and girls in York and North Yorkshire, a full list of which can be found on the OPFCC website.

To find out more about our current VAWG Strategy and an overview of outcomes achieved since the launch in June 2022, please visit the OPFCC website: Addressing violence against women and girls in North Yorkshire & City of York