Government male victim fund favours women’s services
The Home Office has announced that funding allocated to services for male victims of domestic and sexual violence will mostly go to women’s charities.
The Government allocated £225,000 to a male victim fund for 2011-2013 which represents just over half a per cent of the £40m it has ring-fenced up to 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services, rape crisis centres, the national domestic violence helplines and the stalking helpline.
The male victim fund has now been allocated to 12 local charities across England and Wales but only one award went directly to a dedicated charity just for male victims. The other charities to win funding include North Derby Women’s Aid, The Women’s Support Network and a number of local services specialising in work with female victims. Futhermore, only two-thirds of the awards went to fund projects for that are inclusive of adult heterosexual men.
The news has surprised specialist men’s charities as they had previously been excluded from accessing the existing Ministry of Justice Rape Support Fund after UK Rape Crisis secured proviso that only organisations providing a dedicated women’s service could apply to that fund – thereby excluding organisations that specialize in helping male survivors from applying.
Dedicated men’s services who applied unsuccessfully to the 2011-2013 male victims fund include The Men’s Network, The ManKind Initiative, Mankind Counselling, Survivors Manchester and Working With Men.
The news reflects the experience of dedicated men’s services in other countries according to Martyn Sullivan, CEO of Mankind Counselling who has produced a report (click here to read more) on service delivery to male survivors of sexual abuse in American, Canada and Australia.
Writing in the report Martyn said:...read more
The male victim fund has now been allocated to 12 local charities across England and Wales but only one award went directly to a dedicated charity just for male victims. The other charities to win funding include North Derby Women’s Aid, The Women’s Support Network and a number of local services specialising in work with female victims. Futhermore, only two-thirds of the awards went to fund projects for that are inclusive of adult heterosexual men.
The news has surprised specialist men’s charities as they had previously been excluded from accessing the existing Ministry of Justice Rape Support Fund after UK Rape Crisis secured proviso that only organisations providing a dedicated women’s service could apply to that fund – thereby excluding organisations that specialize in helping male survivors from applying.
Dedicated men’s services who applied unsuccessfully to the 2011-2013 male victims fund include The Men’s Network, The ManKind Initiative, Mankind Counselling, Survivors Manchester and Working With Men.
The news reflects the experience of dedicated men’s services in other countries according to Martyn Sullivan, CEO of Mankind Counselling who has produced a report (click here to read more) on service delivery to male survivors of sexual abuse in American, Canada and Australia.
Writing in the report Martyn said:...read more
http://brightonmanplan.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/government-male-victim-fund-favours-womens-services/
