About Domestic Abuse -
Somerset Survivors of Domestic Abuse (SSODA) Conference

Introduction At the end of 2003, the Somerset County Domestic Abuse Forum started to look for a way to work with survivors of domestic abuse who would be able to inform the County-wide Domestic Abuse Strategy and steer the work to address the true needs of abused women and men across Somerset.

At the same time, the SEEDS group (South Somerset Evaluation Empowering Domestic Abuse Survivors) were coming to the end of the an exciting piece of survivor-led research which provided an in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a range of South Somerset services.

A meeting with the SEEDS group in early December 2003 identified that a ‘survivor conference’ would give a platform for this work to take place, as well as a launch pad for the women from SEEDS to give a first presentation of their early findings in a friendly environment to fellow survivors. The SEEDS group was involved in all aspects of planning, right down to visiting potential venues.

Aims

The SSODA Conference set out to:

• Receive feedback from survivors of domestic abuse about the services they received, to inform future development of countywide projects
• For the survivors from the SEEDS project (South Somerset Evaluation Empowering Domestic Abuse Survivors) to present their initial findings
• To determine how far the SEEDS findings represent survivors’ views from across Somerset
• For professionals and survivors to work together to develop recommendations for ten key agencies

Conclusion

This conference demonstrated how important it is that services offer a sensitive and informed response to people affected by domestic abuse.

The specialist services; Refuge, Outreach Workers, Police Domestic Violence Officers received the most positive feedback, mirroring the SEEDS research which found “only the specialist domestic violence services and the health visiting service consistently delivered this standard of service”. (P27, The Evaluation Trust, SEEDS report, Nov 2004).

The data produced from the conference has started the process for the Somerset County Domestic Abuse Forum, and it is important that the survivor voice continues to be heard.

Thanks must go to everyone who made the conference so successful:

• To the delegates who gave their views and shared their experiences so freely.
• To the agencies who supported this conference and to the staff who came and worked on recommendations in the workshops.
• To the SEEDS group who gave excellent guidance on the running of the day.

Recommendations

• Each agency looks at the findings in this report and the SEEDS report, and acts on the recommendations.
• The County Forum continues to acknowledge the value of hearing the survivor voice and undertakes to reflect this voice wherever possible.
  Survivors are involved with planning services.

Find Out More

To download and find out more about this conference and what recommendations came out of it , please see the 'Downloads' page under the 'About Domestic Abuse' section of our website.

To find out about progress and achievements since the SSODA conference, you can view the new report, entitled 'Follow up from SSODA Conference: 2005 achievements ', also available from the 'Downloads' page under the 'About Domestic Abuse' section of our website.

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