Findaway

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) is one of eighteen areas that have secured funding from the Home Office to develop a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and commission services to deliver interventions that reduce serious violence. The Northumbria VRU uses a Public Health Approach to tackle violent crime by working collaboratively with police, local government, health agencies, education representatives and other community representatives to address the underlying causes of serious violence.

The VRU recognises the need for earlier intervention to strengthen the co-ordinated community response to domestic abuse. Families, friends and community members are usually the first to know, and often the best placed to offer support, if someone they know is being controlled, scared or hurt by a partner or family member.

The VRU is therefore seeking to match fund the Findaway Project to enable it to work across Northumbria to fill a current gap in the community response to domestic abuse. The service is not aimed at victims or perpetrators as there are already services in place providing that support - instead it is aimed at those informal networks who are close to the victim or the person who is causing the harm. Findaway seeks to equip families, friends and communities with the knowledge and skills they need to effectively support the people they care about.