Silencing the voices of women. A case study on the effects of the "Supporting People" programme on survivors of domestic abuse in a support and housing association.

For centuries women have experienced domestic violence from men they know, as a consequence of which many turn to public services for support. Traditionally, these services have failed to provide adequate support, yet it is through these interactions with the services that abused women's lives are shaped and defined. Service providers therefore need to hear their voices in order to develop effective support services that enable survivors to 'move on' with their lives. A government initiative ¬- the Supporting People Programme (SPP) - has the potential to ensure that housing support providers develop their services in this manner. The main aim of the SPP is to place service users at the 'heart' of the system through user participation. Whilst this is certainly a step in the right direction, my concern is whether this actually happens or whether services adopt a tokenistic approach to user participation that marginalises and silences women survivors. My primary research question, therefore, is: 'What is the impact of the SPP on women survivors of domestic abuse?¿ Using a research design that included document analysis, observation and semi-structured interviews, I argue that the SPP has the potential to improve the lives of survivors and even to ameliorate, if not eradicate, domestic abuse. However, far from achieving this, the SPP through lack of commitment to ensuring that services actually meet the funding requirement of user participation continues to marginalise and silence the voices of women survivors.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Bradford

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Clarke, Dawn E.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Macey, Marie

• Domestic abuse
• Domestic violence
• Women¿s voices
• Supporting People Programme (SPP)
• Housing support
• Organisational 'deafness'
• Volcano Model
• Victims

Statement dc:rights

• <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4342

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/4342