We were delighted to welcome Minister for Safeguarding and Conservative MP for Derbyshire Dales, Sarah Dines to Vale House. Sarah’s role involves her looking to improve issues such as violence against women and girls, domestic abuse, forced marriage and child abuse and exploitation.
Many of these are areas that Future Living works towards improving as a charity. Sandra, CEO and Founder of Future Living was keen to share the common issues faced by victims of domestic abuse, which sadly affects 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in their lifetime. Sandra said of the visit: ‘’It was a fantastic opportunity to have Sarah come to Vale House and see first hand how the work we do makes a difference to people’s lives. It was also valuable to learn of the Government aims for tackling such issues and learning new ways that we can work together to ultimately end this type of abuse.’’
We also welcomed local MP, Julie Marson and current Chairman of Hertfordshire County Council, Annie Brewster, who recently joined our board as a trustee.
Future Living is proudly part of The White Ribbon Campaign, which aims to end violence against women and girls. Through the work we do with a local school, we have developed 6 young ambassadors, who are passionate about the cause and see the necessity of education of the topic from a young age. One of these ambassadors joined us and gave her account of what changes she feels need to be made from a young person’s perspective.
During the visit, our guests learnt more about the work we do and were invited into The Monica Programme, a 12 week programme specifically developed for female survivors of domestic abuse. Some of the clients from the programme bravely spoke of their experiences and described how through the programme, they had gained more confidence whilst developing a greater understanding of what a healthy relationship should look like.
The Minister was shown around Vale House. She saw our children’s play and art therapy room as well as our group room and further counselling rooms. Sandra explained more about the services we offer and shared some of our client’s feedback from a range of our programmes including Young Hearts, a healthy relationships programme which is delivered to schools in East Hertfordshire.
