LGBT Foundation - Domestic Abuse Support (360G-CR-4926636)

Since the start of the COVID pandemic, LGBT Foundation have been a remote service delivery organisation, moving provision online to continue supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual & trans service users during the changing lockdown restrictions of the past year. The pandemic has led to increased pressure on our domestic abuse service, with a 38% increase in the number of people referred to us for support. Even as face-to-face delivery returns, we anticipate a continued high demand for remote provision, requiring an improvement in our digital capacity, to ensure we can be there for LGBTQ victims of domestic abuse. We will purchase new laptops for our growing team, to make sure each member of staff is appropriately equipped to deliver one-to-one support. This will provide a better experience for service users even after the pandemic, as every victim will have a choice of face-to-face or remote access to our support service. In addition, we will purchase additional access licences to our CRM system, allowing us to record our interactions with services users as they engage with us, supporting their journey through services, enabling referral into other areas of LGBT Foundation support where appropriate. We recognise that many of our service users may want to access digital support, but lack access to suitable technology for making video calls. We intend to purchase a small bank of tablets for service users. These tablets will be available for short-term loan by our service users, enabling them to access remote video-call support for the duration of their support with us, ensuring that there is no financial barrier to accessing digital support. We will also update the Domestic Abuse section of our website, containing info & support, allowing us to signpost & market this to potential service users. Finally, we will work with Comic Relief?s coaching & support offer, to identify any novel solutions to better meeting the needs of our service users, ensuring LGBTQ victims of domestic abuse can continue to access timely, effective support in a way that works for them.