Payout for victim sexually assaulted by man in women's refuge - BBC

[Chersfrozenface]

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-shropshire-64603655

Now these assaults were carried out by a man who didn't pretend to be anything else.

But when Connexus says it does not now employ men in any of its domestic abuse services for women, does that mean any men?

Or would it employ a man if he said he was a woman or non-binary?

I've emailed to ask. It wouldn't hurt it others did so too. Contact form for general enquiries is here connexus-group.co.uk/aboutcontact/contact

That's appalling. I thought all refuges had a blanket no-men policy, even if some were a bit dodgy on how they define 'men'.

I know there might have to be occasional exceptions for maintenance, but that should be under escort - ideally with a warning given about affected areas of the building - and certainly never alone in a room with one of the residents.

Well that doesn't stack up for starters. No need to be dodgy. It's pretty easy to define 'man'. As it is 'woman'.

I actually contacted my local WA (main office not helpline) a while ago to ask if they used/could recommend any female plumbers/electricians/heating engineers.

They said they didn't use any. I was really surprised.

I managed to find some, so they definitely exist in my area.

An expectation that women's refuges would be women-only had been "eroded over time", added Mr Scorer

This stood out to me.

Message sent

Yes I've learned to read between the lines and I feel like she's strongly trying to imply something about the gender insanity without saying it out loud.

In my (unqualified) opinion, this is what can happen when you put refuges, which were started by women wanting to help at-risk women, into the hands of corporate structured HA’s.

I’m sure that some individuals that work for them give a shit, and are there for the right reasons, but does anyone genuinely think that Connexus as an organisation cares? It’s a service they can get funding for.

Yes in my experience these companies only but things like this to enhance their public image and make themselves appear charitable. So the entire situation is just for brownie points.

It's pretty easy to define 'man'. As it is 'woman'.

Absolutely. But my point was that I thought even the rubbish refuges that welcome pretending-to-be-women still at least kept out openly-men. If they don’t even do that, what's the point of them?

I think we need to be very clear when talking about this, that this is about local councils thinking women's rights aren't worth funding and think they can cut refuge provision and hand it over to housing associations who have the skills and empathy of a shark.

I started a thread about this. If you really want to help women only services, the real threat is in fact funders who long before TRAs started their campaign, were happily cutting women's services because they knew nobody would complain. ie us.

By not being aware of what is happening in your local area women's services have been lost.

And come March when all councils will be making cuts you can be sure that women's needs will go to the bottom of the pile.

Part of the power the TRAs have is because it is such a convenient means of an attack on women by MRAs.

Its not always that we weren't aware what was happening; its also that we were aware but unable to effectively do anything to stop it. The women and local politicians who facilitated this are determined to get their way and they take no prisoners.
We've seen local women work themselves into the ground to fund shelters, only for those same shelters to be taken over and given full funding as soon as they stop being for women and children fleeing DV.

As for MRA's, they didn't spring up out of nowhere. They have funding, connections and grass roots support; and they are surprisingly good at tactics such as infiltration.

I dont think there are any "shelters" in the UK, but maybe in the States where there are shelters, they are privately funded.

Most refuges in the UK survive on housing benefit, short term project funding or specialist staff, and some charity funding usually for child services.

And if lucky, their local council will fund them to provide support for women escaping male violence, but that council could decide it is cheaper to give the funding to a genric service homelessness service.

Even in Brighton a women's DV service had their funding taken away (and they are trans inclusive!) and it was given to a generic housing service.

By keeping an eye out, it means looking at the web site of your local council, reading budgets (groan), lobbying local councillors and finding out how the refuge itself thinks it is best to campaign. eg forming a local campaign group.

And maybe lobbying the local MP, but some Councillors go all we dont want Westminster interferring in local government.

The usual mealy-mouthed rubbish 'our thoughts are with victims...' from the corporate monster. Yeah, of course you care.

We are starting again from scratch. We need our own organisations. With no effing men anywhere near them

I actually contacted my local WA (main office not helpline) a while ago to ask if they used/could recommend any female plumbers/electricians/heating engineers.

I know you found someone but I had a targeted ad for this service yesterday:
www.taskher.co.uk

Another useful service

registeroftradeswomen.com/