Number of women contacting Kilkenny Refuge doubled last year

Amber Women’s Refuge CLG recently published its 2023 Annual Report, which details that the number of women who contacted the service in 2023 was more than double the previous year.  

518 women living in Kilkenny and Carlow contacted Amber for support and information in 2023. This represents an increase of 111% on the number of women who accessed support and information in 2022.

Other highlights from Amber’s 2023 Annual Report :

• 115 women received specialist one to one support from Amber’s community-based Outreach team.
• 141 women received Legal, Court Support and Court Accompaniment to obtain court orders, an increase of 213% on 2022.   
• 40 women and 53 children received refuge throughout 2023. 212 women could not get refuge as the refuge was full.   
• 34 women participated in Amber’s Group Support Programmes.
• 46 women received 170 free counselling sessions.
• 22 Mothers received parenting support to help them with the challenges of parenting during or after an abusive relationship.
• 18 children impacted by domestic abuse received specialist one to one support.
• 430 local secondary school students and youth group members completed Amber’s  StartSafe early intervention education programme, which highlights the signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships.

“2023 was another extremely busy year for Amber. The number of women seeking support and information more than doubled last year. Increasingly, there has been a shift in women’s understanding that they do not need to be experiencing physical abuse to seek our support. Increases in awareness of equally damaging forms of abuse like coercive control, emotional and financial abuse have contributed to more women reaching out to us for information and support,” says Lisa Morris, Manager, Amber Women’s Refuge.

Helpline numbers :

Amber Women’s Refuge             0818 42 42 44

Men’s Development Network    051 844260/1

“Our emergency refuge service continued to experience high levels of demand with occupancy in our seven family refuge units running at or close to 100% throughout 2023. We were in the unfortunate position of needing to secure safety for over 200 women and their children seeking refuge at other refuges outside the county as we were full at the time of their enquiry.” continued Lisa Morris.

Other key developments in 2023 included Amber’s appointment, following a competitive tender process, as the lead agency for the development and management of a refuge in Carlow.

A project, in partnership with Kilkenny County Council, to deliver safe, ‘step-down’ accommodation in the community for women and children leaving refuge, also commenced last year.

Following funding from Kilkenny LEADER Partnership and other funding partners the construction of a new standalone therapeutic building in the garden of the refuge started in 2023. The building,  christened ‘Acorn Lodge’, is now open and has increased Amber’s capacity to provide counselling and other therapeutic services to women and children.

In 2023, Amber rolled out specialist training for personnel from local frontline services including An Garda Siochana and the HSE to support a more cohesive, community-wide response to local women and children who are victim-survivors of domestic abuse. The enactment of statutory Domestic Violence Leave last November also saw Amber develop training for local businesses and organisations to support co-workers who are or have experienced domestic abuse.

2023 was the first year that Amber was audited to SORP standards. The Charities SORP is a Statement of Recommended Practice that sets out how charities should prepare their annual accounts and report on their finances. Amber received a clean audit and its 2023 accounts are published in the Annual Report.

“While our year-end financial results show stability, funding will likely remain an ongoing challenge in the context of the ever-increasing level of demand for our services and our increased reliance on fundraising and donor income to meet mounting operational costs. We hope that the proposed move of funding commissioning to the new government agency Cuan will result in us being funded multi-annually, on a more sufficient and sustainable basis in the future.” says Lisa Morris.

Last year the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD announced the establishment of Cuan. Cuan is the statutory agency dedicated to tackling gender-based violence in all its forms, working with partners in the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) sector and across Government to build systems, supports and services for victim-survivors. The agency is responsible for the implementation of ‘Zero Tolerance, Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence’. 

“We are awaiting a National Services Development Plan to outline how the national strategy’s very ambitious plan will be rolled out across four pillars - Protection, Prevention, Prosecution and Co-ordinated Policy. We look forward to working in partnership with Cuan and other stakeholders, both national and local, on the continued delivery of high-quality, specialist domestic abuse services for women and children in Kilkenny and Carlow.” concluded Lisa Morris.

Established in 1995, Amber Women’s Refuge provides emergency refuge accommodation, support and information services and a 24hr Helpline to women and children living in Kilkenny and Carlow who are victims-survivors of domestic violence and abuse. Amber also provides safe, inclusive, community-based support services in Kilkenny city and county and throughout rural county Carlow to women and children living with or fleeing the serious crime of domestic abuse. Amber’s specialist team has over 200 years’ experience working with and advocating for victim-survivors of domestic violence and abuse.   

One in four Irish women and one in seven Irish men will experience abuse from an intimate partner in their lifetime. One in two women murdered in Ireland are murdered by an intimate partner/ex. Donations can be made at www.amberwomensrefuge.ie.