Weybridge & Surrey Community & Charities > Your Sanctuary – Domestic Abuse Help

Your Sanctuary – Surrey Domestic Abuse Charity

Your Sanctuary, formerly called Surrey Women’s Aid, is a local charity that provides a range of services which offer emotional and practical support to people and their children who are experiencing or have experienced domestic abuse.

We are based in Surrey, where one in three women experience domestic abuse as opposed to the one in four nationally.

Help On A National Basis

We don’t restrict our work to the Surrey borders, reaching out to fleeing families from around the country and answering calls on our 24hr helpline from whoever needs help.

Domestic Abuse Helpline

Our emergency helpline offers immediate emotional support to people experiencing domestic abuse, as well as confidential advice and information.

We also respond to enquiries from public and private agencies, community organisations and other non-profit groups.

Call the helpline on 01483 776 822

9am to 9pm Monday to Sunday.

Refuge

On any day in the UK there are 7,000 women and children fleeing domestic abuse and living in a refuge. yourSanctuary operates two safe houses for women and their children.

We help domestic abuse survivors make the transition from temporary refuge to independent living.

Our residents upon leaving refuge have told us that they felt they were empowered to make choices and take control of their own lives.

Community Based Support

Our team of outreach workers serve as advocates for people experiencing domestic abuse and offer practical and emotional support. We also offer free weekly legal and counselling clinics.

Children’s Services

Our aim is to improve the safety and welfare of children living with domestic abuse and to promote the rights of children who have experienced domestic abuse.

Last year yourSanctuary supported 78 children in refuge, two-thirds of whom were age five or under.

Domestic Abuse Facts

• Domestic Abuse can start at any time in a relationship; it is rarely a one-off event and tends to escalate in severity and frequency over time. Domestic Abuse is about POWER AND CONTROL.
• It is a pattern of behaviour and not caused by anger. Domestic Abuse is used to control and is NOT due to a loss of control.
• In England and Wales two women on average are murdered every week as a result of Domestic Abuse. (Almost 100 women are killed by partners or ex-partners each year).
• 21 men died from domestic abuse in England and Wales last year.
• As many as 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men experience an abusive relationship in their lifetime.
• The Police receive one report of Domestic Abuse every minute.
• A woman is likely to have suffered 35 incidents of Domestic Abuse before she makes a report.
• Domestic abuse can start or escalate during pregnancy.
• Abusive behaviour is NOT CAUSED by alcohol or drug abuse, stress, poverty or low level mental health issues (although some or all of these factors can escalate the abuse/violence).
• 750,000 children each year witness domestic abuse.

Donate Today

If you donate to Your Sanctuary, you can also help us deliver the following priority projects focused on making a difference to people affected by domestic abuse, which otherwise cannot not take place:

• A children’s worker for our refuges – working closely with children in our refuges through individual therapeutic support and play we can help to undo the harm caused by domestic abuse.
• A children’s worker to run a therapeutic group for the children of our Outreach clients.
• Extending our free weekly counselling clinics so that more of our clients affected by domestic abuse can benefit from them.
• Extending our awareness raising and preventative work and developing specialised support especially for young people, and other groups.