10 Years of Calan DVS – A Showcase of Our Achievements
To celebrate 10 years of Calan DVS, the charity organised a celebration and showcase event on Tuesday, 7 June 2022 to highlight the key achievements and milestones since formation in 2012. This was also an opportunity to say a big thank you to our staff, trustees and volunteers for their commitment and support during this time.
The event was ably hosted by well-known Welsh conference host and public speaker, Chris Tywydd Jones who himself is an advocate of Calan’s work.
Our CEO, Michelle Whelan, kicked off the event with a presentation covering the impact that Calan DVS has had over the past 10 years in terms of supporting women, men, children, families, communities and professionals. Some of the key statistics included support for:
- 1,863 women and 945 children and young people through our refuge provision
- 6,211 adults within our community services
- 3,295 children in our community services
- 327 families through bespoke programmes.
Michelle, also shared Calan’s strategy for the next five years which includes the launch of a specialist Sexual Violence Support Service along with the launch of the Calan’s first Sexual Violence Trauma Sexual Trauma and Recovery Centre (The S.T.A.R Centre) which will be based in Neath.
This presentation was followed by short videos of congratulations from Jane Hutt, Minister for Social Justice and Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales who also discussed the priorities of her office and how important specialist organisations like Calan are to addressing domestic abuse.
The first guest speaker was Rachel Williams domestic abuse survivor, campaigner and founder of Stand Up to Domestic Abuse. Rachel has also been a huge campaigner for recognising non-fatal strangulation as an offence which, in fact, was made a specific offence as part of the government’s landmark Domestic Abuse Act on 7th June (the same day as our event).
Rachel shared a powerful re-enactment of the abuse she suffered personally which resulted in her being shot by her former partner. Rachel shared some startling statistics regarding domestic abuse with us, including the fact that “domestic abuse kills more women between the age of 16 to 44 than cancer”.
Next up was Beth Edwards former journalist and founder of communications consultancy, We Are Cowshed, which works with a number of charities to support their campaigns across the region. Beth stressed the importance of teaching young people about healthy relationships from a young age based on her personal experience of coercive controlling behaviour. She also told the audience that her GP gave her Calan’s telephone number on the back of a business card and she has kept this card with Calan’s number on to this day as the support she received was life-saving!
These guest presentations were followed by a Showcase hour when key staff members spoke about the work and achievements of some of Calan’s flagship programmes including:
- The ACE’s Recovery Toolkit supporting adults and children
- The Compass programme supporting male victims of domestic abuse and violence
- The Inspiring Families programme which works with the entire family including perpetrators
- The IRIS programme aimed at training GP’s and other medical professionals to recognise and signpost cases of domestic abuse
- The Myriad programme designed for and by the LGBTQ+ community.
Calan staff members also shared information about our core services including our refuge services, our community support and our professional training programmes for organisations such as the police, health boards and local authorities.
Next we heard from Coronation Street actress, Shelley King who, for a number of years has played Yasmeen in the soap, with a four-year long plot around domestic abuse. Shelley explained how important it was an actress to understand the actual issues facing victims of domestic abuse and the impact this story line has had on her understanding of this issue.
We also listened to an inspirational story from a male survivor of domestic abuse who shared his direct experiences and how he benefitted from Calan’s Compass and ACE’S programmes.
The event was rounded up with some light-hearted activities including a quiz, a raffle and singing by Choirs for Good, Bridgend who are a relatively new choir – formed in September 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our event was their very first performance and they were fantastic!
This 10th Anniversary event also saw the launch of a new fundraising campaign by Calan DVS as the charity is aiming to raise £10,000 in 10 months to support programmes for children and young people, at our event yesterday we raised £520 through our raffle.
