Treat Me Right CIC
Training to empower women
Providing training, support, coaching and mentoring to facilitate the empowerment of women, increase their safety, wellness and economic wellbeing.
About the project
Treat Me Right CIC in Folkestone, is a community interest company, providing training, support, coaching and mentoring to facilitate the empowerment of women, increase their safety, wellness and economic wellbeing.
Funding enabled Treat Me Right to design an innovative programme that goes beyond the traditional self-defence classes, incorporating aspects of the lived experience of participants as well as raising awareness of domestic abuse and toxic behaviours.
The grant covered the costs of the venue and staff time to coordinate, administer, monitor and evaluate the project. They delivered workshops on personal safety and self-defence and building safety in relationships. As well as offering one-to-one support and signposting to relevant services, weekly wellbeing 'check ins,' resources on safety schemes such as ‘Ask for Angela,’ empowering talks and videos and a WhatsApp group, where participants can communicate with each other and share information.
Beneficiary story
Sarah, 25, has been in a relationship for over three years. During a group activity in which participants listened to a story depicting various types of abusive and toxic behaviours, Sarah was unable to recognise any behaviour that she considered abusive or toxic. To her these behaviours were normal, that was all she knew. She had been doing counselling for a while, but she never spoke with her counsellor about her partner’s abusive behaviours because he has never been physically violent to her and because to her these behaviours were normal.
As a result of attending the programme, she realised that she is in an abusive relationship and is able to make links to events in her relationship to her loss of confidence and her depression.
Sarah is not yet ready to end the relationship or to be referred to specialist support, but the organisation continues to check in on Sarah to remind her of the help available as well as giving her moral support and prepare her, emotionally and financially to make a change.
“This course highlighted and helped me to recognise that I need to make changes in my life. A very valuable experience. I am grateful for the empowering opportunity.” Sarah
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