Twenty two personnel representing the Health & Social Care Portfolio, St Helena Police Service, the Safeguarding Board and Equality & Human Rights Commission participated in ‘Dealing with perpetrators of abuse’ training during the month of September. Participants were – Laura Aston, David Brickland, Nicole Paulson, Wendy Henry, Patra Duncan, Debbie Leo, Deborah Baldwin, Deborah Knipe, Kaylee Young, Shanade Bedwell, Latisha Fowler, Gerald Abrahams, James Venning, Sophie Crowie, Nicole Hercules, Helen Lawrence, Erika Bowers, Sophia Abrahams, Tracey Stroud, Theresa Buckley, Pamela Ward Pearce and Gillian Brooks (prior to becoming an Elected Member).
The training, which took place over three days, was delivered remotely by the accredited UK-based service provider ‘SafeLives’. Each day, the class looked at different topics covering working with domestic abuse and specifically with perpetrators, understanding the various presentations of domestic abuse, engagement and supporting perpetrators to accept responsibility.
Another area of focus was ‘working with parents where stalking is present’. The following feedback was received by learners who attended the ‘engaging with those that harm’ course:
“The training was very informative, excellent tools and gave a better understanding of how best to engage with perpetrators and to be more open in my profession in entering situations with Domestic Violence.”
The remaining training programme for the year, called the Power to Change, funded by the United Nations, will be delivered remotely in November to nominated staff across portfolios and agencies.
This course will equip staff with the knowledge and skills required to set up and run support groups for survivors of domestic and sexual violence/abuse. The training course will be delivered by Dr Bianca Petkova who is an experienced training officer at Women’s Aid. She is a trained psychologist specialising in the psychology of women.
Domiciliary Care and Day Care Service Manager and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Domestic Violence Project Manager, Nicolene Adams, commented:
“Last year the St Helena Domestic Violence Service with the funding from the UNDP, created and resourced the child-friendly spaces at the Safe Haven. This year Safelives has provided the service with a number of intervention resources for interactive and direct work with children and young people who are victims of abuse or have experienced the abuse of a parent or adult within the home.
“Once again, the St Helena Domestic Violence Service sincerely thanks the UNDP, our external funder that has secured the resources and more specifically the training to secure consistency across agencies and to increase the knowledge and skills of trained staff to ensure delivery of a sustainable and supportive service when working with families, victims and perpetrators of abuse.”
Source: St Helena Government