Public Affairs and Campaigns Hub
We carry out campaigning and influencing work in order to influence Government policy and legislation on issues that matter to you, and the women and children you work with.
All of our public affairs and campaigns work is based on a robust evidence base, using both internal and external research resources.
We consult our members and survivors before deciding on the focus of our national campaigns and we make sure that we involve members and survivors throughout the development stages of our campaigns through Expert Advisory Groups and Campaign Development Panels.
We couldn’t do this important work without the involvement and support of Women’s Aid members. Your input, time and expertise is the foundation of all of our campaigning and influencing work, and without this our campaigns would not be as effective or successful.
Public affairs and campaigns resources
Women’s Aid provides the Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Domestic Violence and Abuse, a cross-party group politicians with an interest in tackling domestic abuse. The group provides a forum, which members of the sector and public are able to attend, for discussion on how policy and legislation relating to domestic abuse is affecting survivors and specialist support services.
Previous APPG meetings have been on various subjects, including: Improving workplace support for survivors, criminalising survivors, protecting children and young people online.
Women’s Aid also supports the APPG to conduct a number of inquiries and publish recommendation reports. Download the latest APPG Reports and read meeting notes here.
Attend a meeting
The APPG meets around five times a year and members are always welcome to come along. We often encourage members and survivors to speak at these meetings so that the group can hear an authentic perspective. If you are not already on our mailing list, you can sign up to receive invites to meetings here
“Contributing to the work of Women’s Aid at the APPG was both empowering, restorative and therapeutic. Representing fellow survivors at the event (despite its unavoidably triggering nature), was both a privilege and validating.” – Survivor who spoke at the APPG
In January 2016 we launched our new network of Campaign Champions and now have over 11,000 Champions. Campaign Champions are grassroots campaigners, many of whom are survivors of domestic abuse, with a commitment to ending domestic abuse, who support our national campaigns on a more local level.
We have over 300 campaign champions now, who are active in lobbying their MPs and promoting our campaigns in their communities. The aim is with time this network will grow and be able to support the campaigns of local Women’s Aid member organisations.
Learn more
You can find out more about the network and how to join here.
“I signed up because I feel very strongly that as a society we need to do much more to stop domestic violence and to help women who are living with it” – Campaign Champion.
We regularly meet with MPs, ministers and peers from the major political parties about our campaigns and other key issues that affect survivors and our member services. We attend government advisory groups and roundtables to make sure that the views of members and survivors are heard by policymakers and key government stakeholders.
What you can do
You could arrange a meeting with your MP at their local surgery to talk about our campaigns or any other local issues you may want to raise with them, or invite them to come and visit your service and learn more about what you do. Having a supportive local MP can be very useful. If you aren’t sure who the local MP is for your organisation, you can find out by searching on the UK Parliament website.
We launched the Child First campaign in January 2016 after hearing from members and survivors that unsafe child contact with perpetrators of domestic abuse was the most pressing issue which needed addressing with a national campaign.
We also know that survivors of domestic abuse and their children are often left traumatised by the family court process and unsafe child contact arrangements.
We are calling on the government, all family courts professionals, and involved agencies to make the family court process safer for women and children survivors of domestic abuse.
Public affairs and campaigns news
We have been working to influence the government on many key issues that affect our member services and survivors of domestic abuse, such as:
- Greater investment into lifesaving specialist domestic abuse services
- The government’s Violence Against Women and Girls strategy
- Reforms to the family courts and criminal justice system
- Improving the workplace support for survivors
- Improving support for child survivors
News
Click here to access our news page and filter for External Affairs
Want to know more?
For more information about our campaigns and public affairs work, please get in touch.
Further information and resources
Women’s Aid Research – our evidence base
Learn more about our policy work, the Women’s Aid Annual Survey and our work with academic partners.
