WHAC - Women's Health and Advice Centre

Supporting Women Around Northumberland

SWAN (Supporting Women Around Northumberland) offers support, advice and counselling across a range of issues to women who may face difficulties accessing services.

SWAN's objective is to reduce the re-offending of female offenders or those at-risk of offending.

SWAN intervenes across all phases of need, from crisis to recovery and rehabilitation. Referrals come from the Probation Service, children's centres, housing, Police, Social Services and the partnership agencies themselves. Women's Intervention Workers provide support in a number of areas:

• Accompanying to activities, such as the gym
• Advocacy such as to benefit agencies, Core Group or Child Protection meetings, housing, GPs and MARAC
• Booking and accompanying onto courses such as confidence building and employability
• Booking and accompanying to therapies such as head massage and acupuncture
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Motivational Interviewing
• Counselling, either provided by Women's Intervention Workers themselves or referring to WHAC or Relate
• Emotional support

"Friends and family have come back because of SWAN" Service user

How SWAN has made a difference

In 2012 a report commissioned by the Corston Coalition to demonstrate the impact of the Ministry of Justices Women's Centre Projects (WCS) was produced. The report uses the Social Return on Impact (SROI) methodology . SWAN, Northumberland's WCS offers a SROI ratio of 1:6.65, this means for every £1 invested in SWAN's activities £6.65 of social and economic value is created for beneficiaries and the community.

Follow the links to read the Executive Summary and Full Report

SWAN was evaluated in December 2010 by an independent research organisation, Barefoot Research and Evaluation. The report found that project effectively delivers interventions across all stages of a women's offending career: from crisis intervention, such as when a woman is homeless, through recovery and to rehabilitation, for example when a client is almost ready to re-enter employment. This is important as the project is sufficiently flexible to respond to all of their clients' needs and not just a particular group.

Read a summary of the evaluation report here. 

In 2011 a progress report found that none of women involved in the SWAN project had returned to prison. 

About the partnership organisations

SWAN is delivered by a partnership of voluntary sector organisations in Northumberland: ESCAPE Family Support (the lead agency); the Women's Health Advice Centre (WHAC); Fourth Action; and Relate. The project team consists of a Project Coordinator, three Women's Intervention Workers and a Project Counsellor.

ESCAPE Family Support has worked in Northumberland for 14 years. It provides holistic support to substance users their families and carers across Northumberland, delivering stand-alone services and interventions in partnership with statutory and non-statutory agencies. ESCAPE provides Tier 2 (advice, advocacy, information) and Tier 3 services (including Person Centred Counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), structured care programmes, therapies, support to employability, brief interventions and 24 hour help line support.

The Women's Health Advice Centre has been providing a non-medical service to women for 25 years. Their objectives are to help women improve their physical, mental, social health and well-being. This is achieved by offering counselling, lifestyle sessions, personal development courses, support and advice services, family law, debt, housing welfare rights and through providing volunteering opportunities.

Relate Northumberland and Tyneside are part of the Relate Federation. Relate is the UK's largest provider of relationship counselling and psychosexual therapy with over 70 years of experience of working with individuals and couples. Relate helps clients to understand their circumstances and relationships and explore the implications of their current situation.

Fourth Action is based in rural Northumberland and promotes equality with communities. The organisation has a long and strong track record in community, project and network development, as well as training, research and evaluation. Fourth Action's main focus has been gender equality, working primarily with women but also with men.

Funding

Support for Women Around Northumberland (SWAN) is one of two projects in the North East which received funding from the Ministry of Justice under their Diverting Women from Custody Programme.