From Wellbeing Café to Tai Chi lessons, Cardiff Women’s Aid tackles pandemic isolation with online support sessions for victims of abuse
Amid the pandemic and a recorded surge in domestic violence, Cardiff Women’s Aid operates daily online workshops to support victims of abuse.
Cardiff Women’s Aid is the Welsh capital’s division of the national Women’s Aid Charity, helping more than 2000 women and children escape abuse per quarter. Specialised in domestic and sexual violence, they had to move most of their services online within two weeks of the first lockdown announcement.
According to the Office for National Statistics, provisional data from police forces indicate a clear rise in domestic abuse incidents during the lockdown. Over this time, Cardiff Women’s Aid played a crucial role in providing crisis support and aftercare recovery for victims.
The aftercare workshops are designed to ease women’s transitions back to a normal life after going through crisis support. Venice Fielding, Community Engagement Manager at Cardiff Women’s Aid explains: ‘‘It’s about continuing connection with other people, finding accessible healing for your trauma on your own term.”
Some women even call it a lifeline
Although it existed pre-pandemic, the program launching online has proven to be essential to tackle isolation. Participants have doubled in a year, jumping from 140 in 2019 to 280 in the first six months of 2020. “Some women even call it a lifeline,” said Venice. The workshops are designed as a safe space for women to connect with others who have gone through similar experiences. There is also a strong focus on connecting women to their bodies, through dance, tai chi, or yoga.
The pandemic ultimately revealed that holding the workshops over Zoom allowed more people to join, and there is a will from the charity to keep operating them online in the future.
Overall, Cardiff Women’s Aid insists: “We’re here, we’re an essential service and we haven’t got anywhere. Even if it seems there’s no way out, there is.”