Talk by Diana Barran, Director of CAADA
Diana Barran, Director of the charity Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA), gave a presentation to the Russian delegates and Haven members of staff about her organisation's work. She discussed the implementation of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) - which are closely linked to the roll-out of SDVCs - and their role in assessing the risk to DV victims and implementing effective solutions for protection. The role of Independent DV Advocates (IAs, IDVAs), which CAADA trains and advises, was explained, as well as the manner in which agencies work with the survivors of DV. CAADA has played a major role in the development of SDVCs, and Diana talked about the pilot work of the Women's Safety Unit in Cardiff. Hearing about the experience of CAADA enabled the Russian party to gain insights which will prove invaluable in their own work to improve the response to victims of DV, especially in terms of the initiation of a multi-agency response to DV.

The event was also attended by a number of Haven managers and its IAs, as well as Caroline Mansell, Walsall PCT.

Wolverhampton Domestic Violence Forum
Co-ordinator of Wolverhampton Domestic Violence Forum (WDVF), Sue Lindup, discussed the forum's work. Police Sergeant Julie Smith, DV Officer for the Wolverhampton Police Force, and Caroline Mansell, Specialist Health Promotion Policy Departmental Officer for Walsall PCT also explained their work and the way in which it tied in to the work of WDVF. Multi-agency work, data monitoring and DV research was discussed.

The Russians now hope that they will be able to set up their own co-ordinating forum for the public bodies of their region which are involved in dealing with DV. Explanation of the work of WDVF, and evidence of the immense difference which can be made through multi-agency co-operation, inspired highly constructive plans to be made!

Dear Kath,

On behalf of our Russian delegation, we would like to thank the employees of The Haven, and you personally, for a well-organised programme of training which will be extremely useful in advancing our work within the sphere of domestic violence and the support of women through the criminal justice system.

We would be very grateful if you could pass on our gratitude to the heads and employees of the English organisations that received us and generously shared their knowledge, accumulated through active experience, about domestic violence. Despite living so far apart, in different cultures, and speaking different languages, we have not been prevented from co-operating so usefully and carrying out our activities.

As the saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. We have seen in your country such respect and understanding regarding the importance of voluntary women’s organisations. Relying upon your experience, we can now be far more convincing when battling our opponents. We can see clearly that the support of voluntary organisations is important, not just because they are the voice of ordinary citizens (and thus, clear elements of a civil society), but also because they are, quite simply, beneficial to the economy.

Relying only on your statistics, we can now convey how expensive domestic violence is for the state when it ignores this problem. One of the most stunning discoveries for members of our delegation was that fact that in Great Britain, the Home Office has a specific person and special group [the Inter-Ministerial Group on Domestic Violence] to tackle domestic violence.

We now understand the direction in which our system of justice must develop, in order that effective support is available for the victims of violence, and so that perpetrators are punished for their crimes. Criminal charges should be brought on behalf of the state, as in your country; our cases arise from private charges. Despite being exhausted by the perpetrator, the woman must play the role of both prosecutor and key witness. It is no surprise that only a handful of cases result in a judicial trial.

Everyone knows the difficulty of taking your first steps; of starting to stand on your own two feet. Thanks to our remarkable teachers and partners at The Haven, we are rapidly learning a great deal. We are so much more fortunate than many of our fellow young crisis centres – which number over a hundred.

The struggle against violence, in all of its manifestations, is a worldwide human problem - for it is contained by no state border or language barrier. In various countries, those who work on this problem understand unambiguously that violence generates only more violence. It is a chain reaction, which once initiated, is very complex to halt. All people working in this sphere - everyone able to so kindly share their own experience with their colleagues from other countries – work together for the future of all mankind.

On behalf of all members of the Russian delegation,

Luidmilla Ermakova
Director of the Crisis Centre "Ekaterina"