At WHAG we work with our clients to empower them to build up the skills and resources they need to take control of their own lives, access a tenancy of their own and maintain a quality of life in the long term. The instalment of the new fence and gate will make this process safer and easier. For example, it could have helped our resident, who for safety purposes, we have named Sarah.

Sarah moved into Rose Court after suffering numerous abusive relationships, including sexual abuse from a family member from a very young age. Rose Court was the only option for supported accommodation available to Sarah who has been on a journey towards detox and rehab, engaging with all requirements expected from her.

Sarah’s ex-partner was arrested for coercive control and put on remand for a short while but was back in the community with bail conditions not to contact her. Despite this, she continued to be harassed by him as he continually drove past the service or parked in the open car park. On one occasion, he attempted to run Sarah over as she left the service.

Sarah was also the victim of attempted cuckooing on her flat whereby unauthorised individuals attempted to overtake her flat to cook drugs. She faced continual obstacles from drug dealers parking openly in front of the service attempting to provide drugs leaving her fearful to leave her flat or even attempt to access the local shops.

We continually reported concerns and empowered Sarah throughout her stay. We are happy to share that after an 18 month stay, Sarah entered detox. We feel that despite the work we and other professionals do to keep someone like Sarah safe, the additional security of an enclosed perimeter with gated access would mean an increased sense of safety. Sarah would have felt more confident to leave her flat with less opportunity for individuals attempting to harm or encourage her to use drugs by parking right in front of her safe space.

We achieve great outcomes, and for Sarah, her journey is still live with her doing everything she can to recover from substance misuse and past trauma now in detox, but this could have been positively impacted by our fantastic service being further secured.

We hope you will help us secure Rose Court to keep both clients and WHAG team members safe.