The Drive Partnership celebrates new funding to tackle domestic abuse

The Drive Partnership has been awarded £2.3 million by The National Lottery Community Fund to tackle domestic abuse and protecting victims by challenging and changing the behaviour of those causing harm.

They have stated that the three-year grant will primarily support The Drive Partnership’s national systems change programme, which identifies systemic gaps in responses to domestic abuse and brings together the insights of victim-survivors, service users, practitioners, specialist organisations, researchers, and policy makers to develop sustainable solutions.

The funding will also enable The Drive Partnership to embark on a new programme of work which will involve building partnerships with specialist “by-and-for” organisations to jointly develop improved responses to perpetrators of domestic abuse within minoritised and marginalised communities.

These partnerships will aim to address a lack of specialist provision for racialised communities and for LGBT+ communities, as well as cultural competency within mainstream services, by collaborating and co-developing new approaches to perpetrators of domestic abuse.

The Drive Partnership will also develop and deliver improved multi-agency practice in response to unmet need around the intersection of domestic abuse perpetration and disability, including mental health.

Alongside national systems change work, the grant will support The Drive Partnership’s policy and influencing activity, ongoing evaluation of its portfolio of interventions, and an expansion of its cross-sector training and workforce development offer.

The Drive Partnership will continue to deliver The Drive Project in areas across England and Wales, as well as the Restart pilot in London, thanks to ongoing support from a range of statutory and philanthropic funders.

Kyla Kirkpatrick, Director of The Drive Partnership, said:

“We are incredibly grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund, along with The National Lottery players, for their ongoing support for our work to transform the national response to perpetrators of domestic abuse.

We have seen significant progress in recent years, with more and more systems protecting victims of domestic abuse by challenging the behaviour of perpetrators, but we know there’s so much work to do, particularly to meet the needs of victim-survivors in minoritised and marginalised communities.

This funding will enable us to co-develop new responses to better meet those needs and, through the partnerships we build together, shift power and influence to grassroots organisations.”

Phil Chamberlain, England Director at The National Lottery Community Fund added:

“This project will not only improve, but potentially save lives too. In the drive to tackle domestic abuse it’s important that vulnerable, disadvantaged or marginalised communities are not left behind and this means ensuring specialist support and responses are built around their needs. We’re delighted to support The Drive Partnership so they can take their vital work forward and continue to make a real difference to people’s well-being and lives.”