[Skip to Content]
Leeds Women’s Homelessness and Housing Frontline Network: Meeting #2

Leeds Women’s Homelessness and Housing Frontline Network: Meeting #2

Leeds Women’s Homelessness and Housing Frontline Network: Meeting #2

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

This a guest blog from Basis Yorkshire, who facilitate Leeds Women’s Homelessness and Housing Frontline Network with Together Women and Leeds Women’s Aid. The story originally featured on Basis Yorkshire's website. 

On Monday 14th February we had our second Leeds Women’s Homelessness and Housing Frontline Network meeting and we were over the moon to see so many frontline practitioners from across Leeds come along for the session!

What went on?

We were lucky to have Lucy from Fulfilling Lives Islington and Camden (FLIC) come along and deliver training on supporting survivors and/or perpetrators of domestic abuse within homelessness settings.

The training was informed by the “Confidence in Complexity” guidance developed by FLIC and Standing Together alongside experts from across the homelessness, domestic abuse and perpetrators sectors, this research really shone through throughout the session and demonstrated the value in focusing on this issue.

Read the full guidance here: Working Effectively with Victims and Perpetrators in Homelessness Settings

Cover of Working Effectively with Victims and Perpetrators in Homelessness Settings

Lucy talked through the complexities domestic abuse in homelessness settings, especially in situations where both survivor and perpetrator are experiencing multiple disadvantages. The training provided invaluable practical advice around ways to engage with survivors when the perpetrator is closely involved and how to challenge perpetrator behavior. It gave us a great insight into the key issues surrounding domestic abuse in homelessness settings as well as offering practical tips that practitioners can take forward into their practice.

After the training Leeds Frontline Network facilitator Cat held a space for reflections, and those who could stayed on to discuss the training and how it could be applied to current clients. This was a great opportunity for practitioners to share experience and offer advice. Thank you to everyone who came along to the training and offered their experience and insight into our discussions!

Reflections from practitioners

At the close of the session we asked everyone to reflect on the training. Practitioners overwhelmingly told us that they had gained something from the training that they would take forward into their practice. In particular, a lot of attendees highlighted how valuable it had been to cover ways in which you can safely challenge perpetrator’s behavior. Attendees also said that break out rooms offered an opportunity to learn from each other, and see the creative and adaptable ways in which other practitioners were dealing with challenging situations.

“The whole session was fantastic – super informative and so much that was covered.”

“[Useful to get] examples of specific things to say, and the evidence shows that doing this is positive”Poll: will you apply anything from today to you practice going forward? Yes: 9, No: 0, I still need more time to reflect on this: 0

We’re so pleased to hear all this positive feedback! We want the network to be a place to connect with others in Leeds in order to draw on the strengths and experiences of other practitioners also doing brilliant work. We want to offer opportunities to develop and improve their practice inside of a supportive network. The network is also here to help practitioners feel less alone in their work, especially when dealing with incredibly challenging cases where it might feel like there is no ‘right’ answer. It was great to hear back from everyone who attended and see that the meeting did provide them with all of those things!

What’s next?

We are hosting another reflective space on 7th March 11 am – 12pm to follow on from this training. During this session we will be looking at experiences of applying today’s training, discussion will be focused around things that have been implemented as well as parts of the training that has perhaps proved difficult to implement.  We encourage anyone who attended the training to come along for the discussion, it will be a great space to share more experiences with other practitioners. If you couldn’t make it to the training, we also welcome you to read through the ‘Confidence in Complexity’ guidance and come along to this session to reflect and hear from others and their experiences.

If you are interested in attending, sign-up via our Eventbrite page: Click here to sign-up

Thank you to everyone who made suggestions for future topics and areas we could focus on in future meetings, as we look to continue to develop the Leeds Women’s Homelessness and Housing Frontline Network we really value your input on what would benefit practitioners in our Network.

Ps. Have you signed up to our Newsletter yet?

Leeds Women’s Homelessness and Housing Frontline Network sends out a monthly newsletter covering all the relevant publications, news, opportunities and events for frontline practitioners in Leeds. If you’d like to receive our newsletter, please sign up to our mailing list by clicking the ‘subscribe’ button below:

Subscribe to our mailing list

If you missed our February Newsletter you can read it here.

News and Views

collapse/expand
  • Brain Injury Guidance

    Brain Injury Guidance

    Leigh Andrews of Change Communication offered specialist advice on brain injuries and homelessness through a digital...
  • End Furniture Poverty Survey

    End Furniture Poverty Survey

    End Furniture Poverty have recently spoken with the Frontline Network to discuss their important ongoing survey, seek...
  • Cover the Cost Campaign

    Cover the Cost Campaign

    Jasmine Basran, Senior Policy Officer at Crisis, talks to us about the Cover the Cost Campaign, asking the Government...
  • VRF Impact Report 2018/19

    VRF Impact Report 2018/19

    Over the past year we have given out 3827 grants totaling £1,156,805 through the VRF. Read the latest Impact Report t...
  • Influence from the Frontline

    Influence from the Frontline

    Frontline workers are crucial at giving insight into the viewpoints of the people they work with as well as the chall...
  • The Vagrancy Act

    The Vagrancy Act

    Crisis, along with others including Homeless Link, Cymorth Cymru, Centrepoint, St Mungo’s, Shelter Cymru and the Wall...
  • Influencing local decisions

    Influencing local decisions

    Zoe, Frontline Network Coordinator at Coventry Citizens Advice, talks to us about the Coventry Frontline Network and...
  • The Litigant in Person Network

    The Litigant in Person Network

    Martha de la Roche, Network Development Manager at Litigant in Person Network (LiP Network), tells us about The LiP N...
  • VRF Impact Report

    VRF Impact Report

    Find out what impact VRF had last year and how to get involved in shaping its direction in the coming year.
  • Housing First Scotland

    Housing First Scotland

    Please see here for the first issue of Housing First Connect - a twice-yearly newsletter for Scotland’s new Housing F...
  • Slaying the Dragon

    Slaying the Dragon

    Will Golding, Edinburgh Tutor at Crisis, talks to us about 'Slaying the Dragon'.
  • CPAG - Early Warning System

    CPAG - Early Warning System

    Dan Norris, from CPAG, talks to us about a new Early Warning System to record the impact of benefit changes implement...
  • The Hostile Environment

    The Hostile Environment

    Bethan Lant, a Project lead from Praxis, writes about the creation of a hostile environment for migrants and refugees.
  • Wrexham’s Crisis Cafe

    Wrexham’s Crisis Cafe

    Sinead Kelleher writes about Wrexham's Crisis Cafe, a multi-agency response to Universal Credit.
  • Frontline Worker Survey

    Frontline Worker Survey

    We are asking frontline workers to participate in a survey, aimed at those working with clients who are experiencing...
  • A map through conflict

    A map through conflict

    A Cyrenians Mediator writes about their innovative Amber Mediation and Support Project, a model of mediation and supp...
  • “A place to call home"

    “A place to call home"

    Hannah Gousy was seconded from Crisis to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) to help design policy recommendations to...
  • A London Nightshelter

    A London Nightshelter

    On 7 November we opened our church-based shelters for the winter with more churches signed on then ever before. Glass...
  • 'Step Up' at The Connection

    'Step Up' at The Connection

    Wyn Newman introduces the volunteer programme 'Step Up' that has been developed at The Connection for service users.