Colin Fitzgerald's Recent Activity

"Respect is the UK membership association for Domestic Violence Prevention Programmes and Integrated Support Services. Their vision is to end violence and abuse in intimate partner and close family relationships. Our key aim is to increase the safety and well-being of victims by promoting, supporting, delivering and developing effective interventions with perpetrators. The work of Domestic Violence Prevention Programmes and Integrated Support Services can prevent situations escalating to a point where women and children are forced to flee their home and can become homeless. For more information see http://www.respect.uk.net or the attached leaflet entitled ‘Working with the source of the problem’. The leaflet contains the case study of Nathan who had separated a year ago from Kim because of his violence and abuse, which culminated in an incident where he was violent in front of their children Jordan (9) and Zak (7) and Nathan hadn’t seen the children since. He was desperate to resume contact and applied for an order to do so through the family court. The court instructed him to attend a DVPP for risk assessment and to complete the group work programme: ‘Without the DVPP/ISS Nathan may not have been granted contact, perhaps leading to him trying to track the children down, growing increasingly angry at – and a risk to –Kim. If he was granted contact it is likely that this wouldn’t have been safe or positive leading to a breakdown of contact and further court proceedings. And without addressing his domestic violence, Nathan may well have gone on to be violent to [his new partner] Lisa too.’"
Reply To: Prevention and recovery from domestic abuse and sexual violence