Advance
Charity for women affected by domestic abuse and the criminal justice system
- 101-200 employees
- B2C
- Fundraising
- Charity
- Westminster, London, UK
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Company mission
Delivering systems change and empowering women and children who experience domestic abuse.
Our take
When first founded in the late 90s, the Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham reported that out of 2000 domestic dispute incidents, only 10 led to convictions. It’s the oversights of the criminal justice system, such as this, that led to the founding of Advance, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of female victims of domestic abuse and the prison system.
Since its founding, the charity has set up community education workshops and centres to improve domestic abuse advocacy. Simultaneously, the Standing Together scheme was a sister organisation designed to improve the strategic and operational responses of agencies working with survivors. The important work of Advance has since expanded into helping mentor vulnerable women who have been in the criminal justice system, as well as services for younger victims of abuse.
Recent movements for the charity include a partnership with Fulham Football Club and the opening of a centre for women in East London. It’s also partnered with the Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women & Girls, Alex Davies-Jones, to tighten the freedoms of the most serious violent and sexual offenders and create safe “restriction zones” dedicated to protecting the women who have suffered at their hands. It's proactive and engaged strategies like this that have maintained the charity’s leading status as a safe haven for abuse and violence survivors.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- An exceptional 30 days of paid holiday per year (pro rata for part time), PLUS public holidays on top (that's nearly 40 days paid holiday per year!)
- Additional days off to celebrate International Women’s Day, and for religious observance and moving home
- Perkbox - an employee discount platform where you can receive free rewards as well as take advantage of savings on clothes, groceries, travel, leisure and more
- Pension scheme
- Enhanced maternity/adoption provision
- Access to our Employee Assistance Programme
- Employee eye-care scheme
- Clinical supervision for front line staff and first line management roles
- Refer a Friend Scheme - £250 for each referral who passes probation
- Organisation wide away days
Leadership
Bear Montique
(Co-Founder)Bear was born in Ireland and came to the UK in the early 60’s. She started work in the sector as a therapist, moving into refuge work in Hammersmith where, in the first partnership with police, she started the first borough outreach project for survivors.
Beryl Foster
(Co-Founder)Founding member of Hammersmith Women’s Aid who opened the first Refuge in the Borough in 1976, one of the first in London. Worked for Women’s Aid in many capacities until 1997 when she was seconded to LBHF Community Safety Unit to develop the unique partnership which became the ‘Standing Together Against Domestic Violence’ (STADV) project.