Background

Derwentside Women's Aid has been providing emergency temporary accomodation in Derwentside for nearly fifteen years to women and children who are or have been experiencing domestic violence. In that time, we have moved to a new, semi purpose building and doubled our capacity to 7 families.

We have also been instrumental in setting up the Derwentside Domestic Violence Forum, which was eventually launched in March 1997 and the youth domestic violence forum, launched soon after.

As a voluntary organisation, our funding is generally not secure, although until October 2001 we are fortunate to have National Lottery funding. We rely heavily on funding from charitable trusts, but we also get revenue from housing benefit, and a grant from Derwentside District Council.