West Mercia Women’s Aid
Survivors & Ambassadors

Survivors & Ambassadors

Ambassadors

Our ‘Ask Me’ ambassadors are members of the community, often survivors themselves, who have taken part in domestic abuse training. The training focusses on empowering individuals as ‘ambassadors’ to become confident in talking about domestic abuse and being a point of information for those who want to know about services and support in their local area.

Working alongside communities to support them in identifying the key issues that affect people locally is key to helping them acquire the resources they need – to build resilience, whilst also offering the opportunity for local voices to influence and shape the response of local services.

50 local ‘Ask Me’ Ambassadors were recruited and trained in 2019/20 from Herefordshire and Worcestershire. WMWA continues to support our Ambassadors, and they in turn have become an essential part of our organisation in supporting our work.

What is Ask Me?

Survivors’ Network

Our Survivors’ Network is an online community for survivors of domestic abuse who have accessed support from our service. This community is a safe space for women to come together to chat, meet like-minded individuals and extend their support system, whilst keeping in touch with our service.

One of the most important aspects is the group process itself; women are creating a space for themselves to relate to each other as peers, establish strong bonds with one another, and develop supportive relationships based on their shared experiences.

This group dynamic creates an atmosphere of understanding, encouragement and support, which in turn reduces the feelings of loneliness, shame and isolation that so often accompany abusive relationships.

Women belonging to self-help groups have identified the following benefits as a result of their participation:

• Having a space for sharing (both their stories and emotions, and information about resources and/or other services in their community) with others who understand what they have been through
• Gaining the companionship and support of other women
• Developing the autonomy to address some of their problems or concerns about their life situations
• Gaining access to the service development and decision making structures of the facilitating organisation
• Developing skills such as events organising and fundraising
• Developing valuable and long-lasting friendship networks

Currently available via Facebook, this group is run by members of WMWA staff and Ask Me Ambassadors act as moderators. The group is private and can only be accessed with admin approval.