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Alison is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She is a Board Member at Colne Housing Society. Alison is also on ...more
Make a Stand on domestic abuse by signing up to four pledges
As the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) launches a new campaign to tackle domestic abuse, its president Alison Inman says all housing organisations must play their part
Since I announced I would be raising awareness of domestic abuse during my time as CIH president, I’ve been overwhelmed by the response.
In the past eight months, the more I have talked to people the more it has become apparent that we understand as a sector that we should be doing more to help the people in our communities and organisations who are experiencing domestic abuse.
“We shouldn’t see this as just another responsibility – it could ultimately save lives, and what could be more important than that?”
It’s also very clear that there are some outstanding organisations which are leading the way. And thanks to the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) there is a huge amount of best practice and knowledge which all housing organisations can benefit from.
So there is no excuse; we can all play a role in tackling what is a huge problem in our communities, and the time to act is now.
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I’m so pleased to be able to launch a campaign today which I hope will make a real difference.
Make a Stand is a partnership with DAHA and my presidential charity Women’s Aid. The campaign gives housing organisations the chance to sign up to put in place four commitments which could make a real difference.
Here they are:
1. Put in place a policy on domestic abuse for your residents
It is, quite frankly, a bit ludicrous that this isn’t a legal requirement.
Housing organisations are required to have policies on all sorts of things, including anti-social behaviour. But the stark reality is, anti-social behaviour isn’t killing two women a week; domestic abuse is.
Legal requirements aside, there is absolutely nothing stopping us from putting a policy in place.
Some housing organisations have led the way on this, so the successful examples are already there and, crucially, so is the best practice in terms of embedding the policy in your organisation by training people and giving them the information they need to spot the signs of abuse and act on them.
2. Put in place a policy on domestic abuse for your staff
It’s crucial that we protect our staff as well as our residents.
I’ve been really clear on this from the outset and one of the most eye-opening things about choosing domestic abuse as my presidential cause has been the fact that since I did, not a week has gone by without someone revealing to me that they have been affected.
We pride ourselves as being great employers and investing in our staff, but if we don’t have a policy to protect the people who work for us, can we really say we are?
3. Publish information on local and national domestic abuse services
This is so simple but could be so effective.
Making sure information on services in your communities and relevant national services are accessible to your residents and staff could make a huge difference.
We have to make it as easy as we can for people in abusive relationships to get access to services to help them, not make them search around and lose hope.
This is easy to do, and Women’s Aid even has a directory of local services that anyone can access.
Find those details and get them onto your website, into communal areas of your developments if you can, into staff rooms – wherever you can get them to make it easy for people to get help.
4. Appoint someone in your organisation at a senior level to lead this
Domestic abuse should be a crucial consideration for every housing organisation and you have to have someone in your organisation who drives it from the top.
This doesn’t have to be onerous; it just means that someone makes sure the issue is always considered.
We shouldn’t see this as just another responsibility – it could ultimately save lives, and what could be more important than that?
I challenge all housing organisations to sign the pledge today and commit to put these four actions into place.
For someone out there in one of our communities or organisations who is living with abuse, it could be the difference between life and death.
Alison Inman, president, CIH
