Our homes, our people, our problem.
Millions of people experience domestic abuse every year, and two women are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week.
Housing organisations house and employ millions of people across the UK, meaning we come into contact with thousands of people affected by domestic abuse.
Tackling domestic abuse
We believe that the housing sector must do more on this issue. In the words of our former president Alison Inman, these are "our homes, our people, and this is our problem".
Working with Women's Aid and the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance, we are asking housing organisations to publicly commit to taking action to support victims of domestic abuse.
So far, more than 400 organisations have signed to our Make a Stand pledge.
The pledge
By signing up to the Make a Stand pledge you are committing to make sure your organisation does the following:
- Put in place and embed a policy to support residents who are affected by domestic abuse.
- Make information about national and local domestic abuse support services available on your website and in other appropriate places so that they are easily accessible for residents and staff.
- Put in place a HR policy, or amend an existing policy, to support members of staff who may be experiencing domestic abuse.
- Appoint a champion at a senior level in your organisation to own the activity you are doing to support people experiencing domestic abuse.
What next?
Once you have signed up we will contact you to check some details and you will then receive a support pack to help you meet the pledge commitments.
You will also receive a pledge certificate and items to help you promote the Make a Stand campaign and your commitment to tackling domestic abuse.
Although Make Stand is predominantly aimed at housing organisations, we have also created a separate supporters’ pledge for organisations that work in or closely with the housing sector but who don’t directly provide homes themselves. This includes, for example, contractors, suppliers, trade bodies, and membership organisations.
We believe that these organisations are ideally placed to help tackle this issue and our supporters' pledge gives asks them to sign up to make three focused, but easily deliverable commitments.
So far more than 440 organisations have signed up for the supporters’ pledge.
Please email policy@cih.org to sign our supporters pledge.
