Our Athena group is a course that we have developed over six years. We work with women to support them with the trauma they have experienced after being subjected to domestic abuse.

At Aurora we believe women need their own spaces to heal from male violence, we fully support the protection of single sex spaces for female victims of male violence. As such, our female only groups, services and spaces apply single sex exemptions under Schedule 3, part 7 of the Equality Act 2010 [1]. Our groups are all female only and are run by and for women.

Groups provide a safe opportunity for women to talk about their experiences of domestic abuse and to talk through this with other women. Those who attend can learn coping strategies from connecting with each other and form supportive bonds and friendships. We are now able to run our groups both virtually and in person.

Athena is designed around the internationally-recognised Power & Control Wheel and allows survivors to explore the subject of domestic abuse in a supportive and appropriately-facilitated setting.

The structured sessions focus on different types of abusive behaviour men choose to perpetrate, on challenging myths associated with domestic abuse and allowing survivors to share their experiences. Assertiveness sessions are built into the programme, which has an overarching focus on empowerment, education and confidence-building.

Aims:

- Increase awareness of the dynamics of domestic abuse

- Increase confidence and self-esteem

- Reduce isolation and feelings of self-blame and assist in the building of support networks

We apply for small pockets of funding to run our groups and have a continuous waiting list for women who would like to access the group sessions, if you are able to donate so we can run more groups, we would be very grateful.