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Training Fund: Expanding trauma-informed support for women at Druglink

Training Fund: Expanding trauma-informed support for women at Druglink

Training Fund: Expanding trauma-informed support for women at Druglink

Friday, February 27, 2026

 

We spoke to Bernie Roles from Druglink in Hertfordshire about how the Training Fund supported the completion of specialist facilitator training, expanding the support available to women fleeing domestic abuse and rebuilding their lives.

Druglink provides temporary housing and specialist support for women fleeing domestic violence, many of whom are also dealing with complex trauma and substance misuse. The charity also delivers substance misuse education and prevention work, recovery and housing services, and affordable counselling for adults in Hertfordshire.

Through regular client feedback sessions, women in their care have asked for structured support to help them process trauma, make sense of their experiences, and build emotional resilience as they prepare to move back into the community.

Bernie is an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA), a recovery worker, and manager of two specialist drug and alcohol refuges for women fleeing domestic abuse. Bernie also brings lived experience of addiction and domestic abuse to the role.

“We support women who need to flee and welcome them into a place of safety where they can begin to heal from their experiences and recover. We support them to make homeless applications to a borough of their choice and then support through until they hopefully gain their own property.”

Need for Training

The women Druglink support can stay in the refuge for between four and six months. They already deliver a 12-week domestic abuse programme, but staff found that women staying for longer periods would only have the option to repeat the same course. Bernie and the team wanted to broaden what they could offer.

“We wanted to be able to offer them an additional course they could complete to give them a deeper understanding and hopefully prevent them from getting into another domestic abusive relationship.”

The aim was to provide more in-depth, structured support that would help women better understand patterns of abuse and build resilience for the future.

The Training

Bernie completed Own My Life CPD accredited facilitator training. The course is designed for practitioners working within women’s services and organisations responding to domestic abuse, sexual violence and related trauma.

Delivered online over five full days, the interactive training equips facilitators with the knowledge and materials needed to deliver the Own My Life course directly to women. It includes comprehensive domestic abuse education, learning on the physiology of trauma, and a structured workbook that participants keep.

“It was probably one of the best training courses I have ever completed. The qualification comes to the person who completed the training and not the organisation so I now have this to take with me wherever I go.”

The Impact

Bernie has already begun delivering the course to a first cohort of eight women, working in partnership with another domestic abuse organisation to run sessions in the community. This has allowed women in refuge to begin building social networks beyond the service.

“The learning I received was brilliant. It had similar themes to the programme we already offer but it goes into much more depth."

By expanding the range of programmes available, Druglink can now offer more tailored, in-depth support to women as they prepare to move on to their own tenancies.

The Application Process

“I didn't personally complete the Training Fund application, our grants and fundraising worker did, and she said she found it very easy to complete.

Without this access to funding, as a very small charity this would not have been something I would have been able to attend as it was quite costly. Now that I am trained, it means I can continue to deliver this programme to other women for as long as I want to do this. In this first cohort we have managed to deliver this to eight women which is just the very beginning of being able to deliver it to many more in the future.”

 

 

If you have, or your team has, a training need that you are struggling to pay for

APPLY TO OUR TRAINING FUND

and we will do all that we can to help.

 

Find out more about Druglink here: druglink.co.uk

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