What Refuge Does — Key Services

Refuge provides a wide range of services, including:

• Refuge accommodation (safe houses): Secure locations for women and children escaping abuse, where they receive emotional and practical support.
• 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline: A confidential helpline offering advice, information and emergency assistance.
• Community outreach services: Support for survivors in their own homes or wherever they feel safe, without requiring them to move into a refuge.
• Independent advocacy and legal guidance: Help with navigating systems such as housing, social services, family courts, immigration and welfare benefits.
• Children’s services: Emotional and developmental support for children affected by domestic abuse.
• Culturally-specific and specialist services: Tailored support for diverse communities, disabled women, and those with unique cultural or linguistic needs.
• Economic abuse support: Guidance for those whose partners have controlled finances, sabotaged employment or restricted access to money.
• Digital and tech-safety support: Helping survivors secure devices, accounts and digital footprints to prevent online monitoring or harassment.

Impact & Reach

• Refuge supports thousands of women and children every day across the UK.
• It addresses multiple forms of violence and exploitation, including:
  • physical and emotional domestic abuse
  • coercive control
  • economic abuse
  • stalking and harassment
  • “honour”-based violence
  • forced marriage
  • human trafficking and modern slavery
  • sexual violence
• Refuge also trains professionals (including police, educators, and health workers) to improve awareness and response to abuse.
• Beyond direct services, the charity runs campaigns, advocates for change, and works to influence national policy relating to domestic abuse and women’s safety.

Organisation & Background

• Founded in 1971 by Erin Pizzey (originally as Chiswick Women’s Aid), Refuge pioneered the first modern domestic violence shelter in the UK.
• It is a registered UK charity headquartered in London.
• Its core values include equality, dignity, inclusion, empowerment and survivor-centred practice.

Philosophy & Principles

Refuge is driven by the belief that domestic abuse is rooted in gender inequality and wider social power imbalances. The organisation aims not only to provide immediate safety — but to challenge the societal norms, laws and attitudes that allow abuse to persist.