So women have been coming down to us through referrals and those referrals come from our partner agencies. So social care, police, health services…
And we are having some great conversations on the phone in these early stages.
We are an intensive outreach service and we are goal-based so a lot of those early discussions are around what the women would like to achieve whilst they’re on the programme.
The women that we work with do have complex needs and that can range from drug and alcohol abuse… mental health needs…
Often as we start to get to know women in the first stages we are working around stabilisation. So that involves housing, getting women registered with a GP, trying to link them in with the appropriate services to meet those needs that they are presenting with.
Also a lot of our work is trying to have fun. Trying to build self-esteem, self-confidence.
They’ll be supported by the peer volunteers – so the women from Cohort 1 [2017-18] will be joining and supporting the women who are just joining Pause.
I guess a message to those women that are due to start: that we are really looking forward to meeting them and having them on board and seeing them at groups and sharing their stories with us and moving forward to what can happen over the next 12 to 18 months.