Leeds Women’s Aid 50th Anniversary celebration – Here’s what I learnt

Leeds Women’s Aid was founded in 1972 by a group of feminist activists, and their first refuge consisted of two broken down houses in Burley.

At the time of setting the charity up, it was still legal in the UK for men to rape their wives. Hosted in Millennium Square on 06/10/2022, the 50^th anniversary event was hosted by key speakers including Chief executive Nik Peasgood and domestic abuse commissioner Rachel Reeves MP.

The evening highlighted the importance of these women’s work and this year they are fundraising ‘£50k for 50 years’ to continue their invaluable research and support.

As family court remains outside of core budgets, the ability to leave situations of abuse are too often difficult and dangerous, especially with children involved. Leeds Women’s Aid provide a 24-hour helpline and online chat to offer advice and empower vulnerable women and girls to be safer, improve confidence and well-being.

With migrant women being one of the most vulnerable groups, the charity offers their services in 32 different languages, supporting 33 different nationalities. You are not required to give any personal details (not even your name) when you first speak to Leeds Women’s Aid, so you can remain anonymous in your enquiry if you so wish.

The online site and helplines saw a huge surge in users during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 48% increase compared to pre-pandemic society.

We were honoured to be invited to such an important event and understand further the impact that these charities have in shaping our society and helping women and girls understand that the abuse that they have faced is not their fault.

Further reading

Sexual abuse/domestic abuse claims – Oakwood Solicitors

Leeds Women’s Aid

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