General Enquiries FAQs
How can I work or volunteer for Women's Aid near where I live?
How can I work on the Helpline?
What skills do I need to work in a refuge or the domestic violence sector?
Can I do a work placement with Women's Aid?
How can I donate an item to a refuge or to a woman leaving a refuge?
Is there a Women's Aid or other domestic violence service in my area?
I'm doing a student project/researching for my dissertation. Can you help?
Where can I find statistics on domestic abuse?
Does Women's Aid have a customer care policy and procedure?
How can I work or volunteer for Women's Aid near where I live?
Thanks for your interest. Women’s Aid National Office advertises jobs online. Women's Aid acts as a support network for our member organisations (refuges and domestic violence services) throughout England, but doesn't participate in the recruitment of their staff and volunteers. Find out more about volunteering for us.
How can I work on the Helpline?
Find out full details about volunteering specifically for the Helpline.
What skills do I need to work in a refuge or the domestic violence sector?It's difficult to give advice on this because so many different skills are required for jobs in this sector (e.g. support workers, children’s workers, phoneline staff, counsellors, project managers, policy officers). Many local authorities and other organisations also carry out domestic violence related work, and each has specific employment criteria; you would need to contact them for details.
Search the job section of the Guardian website or www.charitypeople.co.uk (who can also provide career advice), and your local paper to check out the types of job on offer and the skills, experience and qualifications which are currently being asked for. Your local Jobcentre or career advice service may also be able to help you.
Can I do a work placement with Women's Aid?
The recruitment of staff and volunteers for local domestic violence services is done locally by each service as they are all self-managing, so you will need to contact them about the possibility of a work placement
How can I donate furniture/clothes/other items to a refuge or to a woman who is leaving a refuge?
Please contact your local refuge to find out whether your items can be used. It is greatly appreciated as most refuges operate on low budgets and women staying in them are also often without funds. Although you may be certain that items could be of use, the refuge may not always be able to accept them. Please don’t be offended if they can’t accept your items this time.
Is there a Women's Aid or other domestic violence service in my area?
Public contact phone numbers for refuges and domestic violence support services are on our website. For reasons of confidentiality and safety, we don’t provide contact addresses on the website or from our main switchboard. When you've spoken to a member of staff at a specific refuge or outreach service, you'll be given an address if this is appropriate.
I'm doing a student project/researching for my dissertation. Can you help?
We receive so many enquiries from students and researchers that we are unable to respond individually or send out information packs. Our website contains more information than we could ever supply as printed matter. Good places to start your research are:
- About Domestic Violence contains key statistics
- A-Z of topics contains a range of info on different subject areas
- Useful Links for other organisations whose work includes domestic violence issues
- Survivor's Handbook, a guide for women who are experiencing domestic abuse
Where can I find statistics on domestic abuse?
About Domestic Violence contains a large amount of information and you can also view a topic on statistics relating to domestic violence. Our Domestic Violence FAQs may also be useful. The Useful Links will lead you to a number of other sources of information and statistics (the Home Office website is very informative).
Does Women's Aid have a customer care policy and procedure?
Yes we do. Women’s Aid recognises that good customer care should be a given, and aims to set clear standards of service, regularly reviewing and improving performance. Women’s Aid aims to provide the highest standard of services to all its customers. Read our customer care policy.
However, we also recognise that from time to time there may be the need to raise a concern about an aspect of our work or the conduct of our staff. We take all feedback, both good and bad, very seriously and are continually working to improve the level of service we provide.
Our customer care procedures outline different ways you can contact us, what you can expect when you do contact us and how we use your ideas to make sure that we offer the highest level of customer service possible.
Download our customer care feedback form.
