Abused women are having to wait three months for counselling support from Jewish Women’s Aid because the cash-strapped charity does not have the funds to recruit an additional staff member.
JWA helps 600 women annually from all sections of the community and its active caseload is at a record high of 80. It also works with more than 100 children. It provided more than 1,000 counselling sessions last year, relying on a dedicated core of qualified volunteer counsellors.
Despite the hiring of a part-time counsellor, demand now outstrips supply and there are currently 15 women on the waiting list for an appointment — although they are being helped by a caseworker.
Operating on a shoestring — and with just seven per cent of its income from statutory sources — JWA would need to find another £50,000 to fund a full-time position, which executive director Naomi Dickson suggests would be shared because of the harrowing nature of the work.
A similar sum would enable the charity to bolster its casework team, most of whom are part-time.
“We are the only domestic violence service in the community yet we have to survive on under three-quarters-of-a-million pounds a year,” Ms Dickson said.
“There is the denial element. People struggle to say this is a major problem in our community. A lot of men think it’s a ‘women’s issue’ and our clients are not going to publicise their experience.
“They are so traumatised it can take years to recover, living in the same community as their ex and their former mother-in-law.”
Ms Dickson attributed the rising demand not to increased abuse but enhanced awareness of the subject and JWA’s services.
It also offers support by phone and is contacted by women from small communities as diverse as Kent and Cornwall.
“People at a low point need a soft landing and we are culturally sensitive. The tipping point could be the kids leaving home — or ‘he’s started raping me’. The scariest part is picking up the phone. It’s the start of a journey and you don’t know where it’s leading.”
The age of those helped ranges from 16-year-olds with an abusive boyfriend or family member, to nonagenarians.
“A woman in her 80s walked in off the street and said: ‘I can’t take it anymore’.”
As a result of training programmes with communal professionals, rabbis often now contact the charity with referrals.
Only a handful of women are currently being given refuge, as more clients are helped to take advantage of support mechanisms such as a non-molestation order, excluding the abuser from the family home for a fixed period.
“Fewer people are turning up with black eyes,” Ms Dickson reported. “It’s about coercive control, verbal abuse and sexual abuse.”
There is a statistic for the general community that a woman will suffer 35 abusive incidents before seeking help and she believes the figure among Jewish women is higher.
