Funding means an even better service
Some see them as a sport, others a performing art, but the disciplines taught at the Airborne Academy in Liverpool are helping young people hurdle any obstacle.
Image of Maureen Harris
Support from the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP) has helped a domestic abuse charity return to face-to-face interviews and get to the core of what can make perpetrators violent.
DMAT (Duluth Model Assessments and Training) is a unique offer in the UK, in that it uses an American born technique to engage with perpetrators and sit behind the causes of misogyny.
The scheme is the brainchild of Maureen Harris (pictured), who began it in her own time, often having to search extensively for property to hold her sessions in. She even paid her own way to the United States to learn the technique!
Funding from the MVRP has enabled her to employ two full-time workers, find more secure premises and return to the in–person interviews so essential to the success of the scheme.
Said Maureen: “We are now reaching more people than ever before and have had increasing referrals and self-referrals. It has enabled us to grow and expand into new areas in Merseyside
The big change has been going back to face-to-face work. That has allowed us to build better relationships with people we support to help them to relax and open-up. That can only help prevent them from continuing or becoming a perpetrator of domestic abuse. If I can help one person achieve that, I will be happy.”