Introducing the STAR programme and play therapy
West Mercia Women’s Aid offers a range of support for children and young people who have been impacted upon by their experience of living with domestic abuse.
Much of this vital work is funded by Herefordshire and Worcestershire local authorities, and by the Office of the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).
Sadly, there is still far greater need than we have capacity to meet, and we are constantly looking for additional sources of funding to enable us to do this vital work.
In May 2024 we received a £10,000 grant from The Eveson Trust to enable us to expand this vital work. This will include an increase in provision of play therapy for younger children, and training our children’s workers in a new programme called STAR. STAR is an early intervention group programme that works with both children and parents together.
The grant from Eveson will help us to roll out more programmes to ensure that all young people are getting the support that they need to better understand their experience and to regain their confidence and optimism for the future.
“STAR is a therapeutic programme that has been evaluated as particularly successful with younger children – nursery and early primary school age. It helps them understand the trauma in a child friendly way, and also enables the parent to understand, and to help support their child in understanding and regulating their emotions. As a new programme for us, it fills a gap in provision for this particular age group.”- Kate Annison, Manager for Children & Young People Services.
We look forward to introducing this programme into our services and are very grateful to the The Eveson Trust and the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner for their support. Our work with children and young people is a high priority for us and we will continue to look for opportunities to further expand our capacity to offer support to as many children as possible.
Find out more about our work with Children and Young People.