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Tesco Community Grants: Little Essentials for a New Life

As a new year starts it seems like a good time to look back on the work we did during 16 days which ran from 25th November to 10th December to raise awareness of Violence against Women and to look forward to the work we are already doing on this theme in 2023. 

This year we worked with several organisations during 16 days. Just immediately prior to 16 days we delivered a 3 hour session for 4th year medical students at the University of Glasgow on domestic abuse.  It is absolutely vital that everyone starting a career in healthcare has the confidence and knowledge they need to ask about this pernicious problem and because of that this is something we do every year. 

We continued with a presentation to the Association of British Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons at their annual conference. The audience included not only British surgeons but also several international surgeons studying in this country. For some, the issue of domestic abuse isn’t something they can’t easily raise in their home country but all commented on how valuable the insight into coercive and controlling behaviour was for them. We can only hope that the more people we train the more they will speak about it and the more things will change.

We also provided training through our ASC programme to business owners and employers in Clackmannanshire in partnership with the Scottish Business Resilience Centre. These online sessions included a wide range of business owners, organisations and community members in the audience and we have already received requests for information to pass on to their colleagues and items they can distribute to potential victims. 

We finished with a short refresher session for colleagues at Glasgow Dental Hospital in Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine. While many had heard this information before we are always mindful at MAV that there is a constant turnover of junior clinical staff and we need to keep repeating the message so that asking about domestic abuse becomes standard practice across healthcare.

We are also very grateful to our Dental Hospital and School colleagues and those further afield in the East Dunbartonshire HSCP for their generous donations to our 16 days appeal. Those donations of essential toiletries are on their way to the Emergency Departments we work with around Scotland to be given to victims of domestic abuse at a time of crisis.

So lastly, what do we have planned for 2023? ASC is a domestic abuse training programme that we developed back in 2015 with a grant from the Scottish Government and while this funding has now ended we still deliver as much training as we can to as wide a range of people as possible. 

We’ll soon be speaking to both Dental and Medical students at the University of Glasgow. Our dental student input is a standing item in our calendar but this year for the first time we’ll be speaking to medical students much earlier in their student careers and giving them an overview of the wider issue of gender based violence. This is all part of helping them to understand their role and making routine enquiry about abuse standard practice.

We are also working with the Equalities Department at NHSGGC to provide training for healthcare support workers. 

If you feel training would benefit you or your organisation please get in touch with us on info@mav.scot

Going back to the title of this post we have been fortunate to to be selected for the customer vote for a Tesco Community Grant in Glasgow to allow us to provide essential items to people fleeing domestic abuse in a more sustainable way across the year. This scheme awards programmes like ours grants of up to £1500 but how much we get is up to you! Voting opens in mid January and runs till the end of March and to vote all you need to do is make a purchase and pop your blue token you can get at checkout into the voting box at the exit. The more votes we get the better. Many thanks to the Tesco Community Grants scheme for this opportunity.

Our project details are below along with the stores you can vote at. 

Medics Against Violence: Little Essentials for a New Life, Glasgow

We provide packs of essential items such a toiletries to victims of domestic abuse seen in the Emergency Department and who are fleeing their home to a place of safety

2148    North Hanover Street Glasgow    TBC     Express

4886    Glasgow Queen St Exp    G1 3DN  Express

6164    Glasgow St Enoch        G1 4BW  Express

6539    Glasgow Sauchiehall Street      G2 3HQ  Express

5480    Sauchihall St Gla Exp   G2 3LW  Express

6391    Glasgow Renfld St Exp   G2 5AH  Express

4410    Glasgow Hope St Exp     G2 6LL  Express

5312    Argyle St Glasgow Exp   G2 8LY  Express

6151    Napierhil Glasgow Exp   G20 7YA Express

6158    Glasgow Queen Exp       G20 8NX Express

2587    Glasgow St Rollox Ext   G21 1YL Extra

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