Womankind, Bristol Women’s Therapy Centre
Womankind Befriending ServicesAbout Womankind, Bristol Women’s Therapy Centre
Womankind provides 3 befriending services.1. Womankind befriending service for women affected by sexual violence – The purpose of project is to provide isolated women who have experienced rape and sexual abuse and have additional mental health needs regular contact with a trained and supervised female befriender. Women who have experienced sexual violence often feel very traumatised, vulnerable and unsafe. Volunteer befrienders will work alongside women for 2-3 hours each week for up to a year. They will provide a boundaried relationship helping women to feel safe and enabling them to gain in confidence and self-esteem and increase their independence. They will also be supported to build their social support network to decrease isolation.The key objective is to improve the mental health, wellbeing and resilience of women who have been victims of sexual violence and to support them to feel safe and reengage in the outside world. Support will be tailored to each woman’s needs, women are encouraged and empowered to determine their own outcomes and the service allows sufficient time for them to make positive and sustainable changes in their lives.The purpose of the volunteer Befriender is not to do things for the woman but to be affirming, encouraging, and empowering. The value of the Befriender is in being ordinary, to sensitively encourage a safe friendship to develop. Volunteers will offer emotional and practical support. Practical support is geared towards getting out and about in the community and supporting women to feel safer, more confident and independent. At the beginning, that might be going out to the local shops and having a coffee, finding a new hobby, going for a walk in nature, and later joining a class where she can meet new people and make safe and healthy friendships. How the relationship develops will obviously depend very much on the two individuals involved but it will at all times provide and model stability, safety and structure. Women can be referred into the service at any point in their recovery journey depending on their needs. 2. Womankind befriending service for women in South Gloucestershire – The purpose of the project is to provide isolated women who are experiencing mental health problems regular contact with a trained and supervised female befriender. The service aims to help women improve their mental health and wellbeing and decrease isolation so they can lead more fulfilling lives by helping them get out and about, gain in confidence and self-esteem and build up their support networks by joining new groups and making new friends.We intend that the volunteers will provide something extra and quite different from the support already offered by the professional keyworker. It is important that the volunteer Befriender’s involvement is part of a package of care that includes some professional therapeutic help. The key objective is to improve women’s mental health and wellbeing and reduce social isolation by helping them get out and about, increase independence and confidence and build a support network. The support will be tailored to each woman’s individual needs.3. Womankind offers a (mostly remote) Befriending service for referred Sovereign female tenants, providing women with emotional support from another woman for up to 6 months. Womankind will recruit, train, match and supervise volunteer befrienders to support each woman according to her needs. Women will be given tailored, culturally sensitive support through regular and consistent weekly calls or online, for an agreed period. Many of the women referred will be struggling with their mental health and will have experienced trauma and abuse. The project will empower them to make positive, sustainable changes and lead more fulfilling lives. Their mental health and wellbeing will improve by befriending building on their strengths, abilities, community networks and resources.
3rd Floor, Brunswick Court, Brunswick Square, Bristol, England, BS2 8PE
Service Eligibility
Information for Volunteers
For Services 1 and 2 (as in service descriptions above)Upon the completion of training, each volunteer is matched with one women who has experienced childhood abuse, trauma, sexual violence and or domestic abuse, and will be experiencing mental ill health and social isolation.As a befriender you would be expected to commit to 2-3 hours on a weekly basis for one year and attend monthly group and individual supervision.You and your befriendee would start by getting to know each other and gradually, getting out and about. As the relationship develops, you would support and empower her to make changes and develop her confidence in doing everyday things such as getting the bus, joining a class or finding a new hobby.You would also support her emotionally, using active listening skills and providing her with the space to discuss the issues she is struggling with and be expected to demonstrate a healthy and boundaried relationship.For service 3Upon the completion of training, each volunteer is matched with one woman who has experienced childhood abuse, trauma, sexual violence and or domestic abuse, and will be experiencing mental ill health and social isolation.As a befriender you would be expected to commit 1-2 hours on a weekly basis for 6 months and attend monthly group and individual supervision. Many of our volunteers decide they would like to be matched with another woman after the completion of their first match and continue volunteering with us for another 6 months. You and your befriendee would start by getting to know each other gradually. Once you have built up your relationship, you would support her emotionally, using active listening skills and providing her with a space to express her feelings and feel heard. You would help her to believe that she can achieve her goals and have safer relationships. Part of your role would be demonstrating what a healthy and boundaried relationship looks like.