Dawn Hodson, Chief Executive of Reducing the Risk, shares how support from the Foundation has enabled them to monetise and franchise their domestic abuse awareness training, boosting their reach and income.
Charity location
Charity focus
Grant size
Small charity Reducing the Risk has run a domestic abuse champions network across Oxfordshire for over 20 years, providing vital awareness training and support to professionals across many different services. Dawn Hodson, Chief Executive, shares how support from the Foundation has enabled them to monetise and franchise their training, and how they’ve expanded their reach into the North East of England through a partnership with another domestic abuse charity funded by the Foundation, Impact Family Services.
Domestic abuse is so prevalent that you can’t just leave it to specialist services to deal with. Professionals across all services need to have the knowledge and awareness of domestic abuse so they know the risks and how to respond. The most valuable thing about Reducing the Risk's domestic abuse champions network is it gives members access to experts who they can turn to for support and guidance when they need it. It's not just about training; it's about providing ongoing support and building relationships.
The support from the Foundation has given us the capacity to strategically look at how we can develop our network and generate income from our training. As part of their development support offer, the Foundation paid for consultants who helped us identify what our unique offering is and how to position ourselves, as well as developing our branding, training catalogue and online hub. Thanks to this, our training now generates a significant part of our income, which means we are less reliant on fundraising.
Having this licensed training model means that we can increase our reach and impact, as well as our income. It’s about enhancing what all small charities can do and small charities supporting eachother.
- Dawn Hodson, Chief Executive, Reducing the Risk
Dawn Hodson, Chief Executive of Reducing the Risk
Our Regional Manager from the Foundation connected us with Impact Family Services, another small domestic abuse charity funded by the Foundation that was wanting to do more awareness training and prevention work. Their Chief Executive, Catherine Marchant, asked if we would consider training their staff so that they could deliver our accredited training in their local area. I was open to the idea but didn’t know how we could make that happen – and that’s where the Foundation’s development support stepped in again.
Another consultant, paid for by the Foundation, helped us develop an authorised training provider framework with a contract, quality standards, and pricing structure. We’ve now agreed that Impact Family Services will have a license to deliver Reducing the Risk’s accredited training in their local area. It’s a win-win: it gets our resources and network into the North East, where we would never have been able to go, and it equips Impact Family Services with accredited training and a new way to generate sustainable income.
We’ll be continuing to support Impact Family Services with whatever they need, and they’ll become part of our champions network, have access to our hub and be able to start their own North East branch of the network. It’s been a great collaborative piece of work and we’re excited for the opportunities that our partnership will open up.
Staff from Impact Family Services meet with Reducing the Risk to receive training and start their partnership
We are hoping to license our training to more small charities so that we can expand our reach across the country. There is a massive need for domestic abuse training and awareness across public and private services, and there's a requirement from the Domestic Abuse Act for businesses to also have awareness and provide support for their employees. We want this training to be delivered by small charities like Impact Family Services, because they're the ones who will always be there supporting people affected by domestic abuse in the community – and if sharing their expertise can generate more money for their vital services, then it’s a win for everyone.
Small charities lack infrastructure and that’s why the development offer from the Foundation is so great because it gives us access to experts that we could never afford to pay for. We’re excited to share what we’ve been developing for 20 years with other small charities across the country because we know that it’s an effective way to coordinate a community response to domestic abuse.
Reducing the Risk had already developed all the training and resources that we were wanting to develop, so it makes sense to deliver their training which is already tried and tested.
It will be another source of income for us and help to raise our profile in the community. Most importantly, it will connect us with people who are all working towards the same goal of raising awareness and supporting people affected by domestic abuse. And, in turn, it helps Reducing the Risk scale and get their amazing resources out there.
- Catherine Marchant, Chief Executive, Impact Family Services, a domestic abuse charity based in South Tyneside
Dawn Hodson, Chief Executive of Reducing the Risk, and Catherine Marchant, Chief Executive of Impact Family Service celebrating their partnership
Find out more about Reducing the Risk and Impact Family Services
