Fundraiser meets Bristol women's charities during 10-night Sleepout Challenge

The stopover, on February 4th, marks the fourth consecutive sleepout for Lianne Kirkman, in her gruelling Her Fight, Our Night Challenge, in support of her charity The Esther Project and brings her into contact with The Nelson Trust.

Her journey, which begins in her home town of Leamington Spa on February 1st, is also taking her to Coventry, Birmingham, Plymouth, Southampton, London, Doncaster, Hull and, finally Blackpool, where, en route, she will meet local organisations supporting women and raising awareness of the complex issues and best practice solutions and highlighting the gaps in service provision.

The 50-year-old mum of two said: “I want to highlight the need for more women’s centres and some of the great work and some good practice around the UK and we want to work with the other charities to highlight the issue around the Government’s role in funding women’s services.

“Every experience is going to be different but I know that we're going to be met with the same issues around funding, around women not being safe, the effects of trauma and the cycle of abuse, the poverty cycle and women in and out of the criminal justice system.”

Established in 1985 in Stroud as a residential rehabilitation centre for those experiencing drug and alcohol use, today The Nelson Trust has four single-gendered residential treatment centres for abstinence based recovery.

Three further centres are aimed at those leaving treatment in need of housing, plus five Hub enterprises offering training and work experience for the recovery community as they continue their journey and build life-long skills as they return to society.

While the drug and alcohol community remains at the heart of the Trust, they also have nine women’s centres across the South West of England and Wales, with a first of its kind women’s centre inside HMP Eastwood Park.

These centres offer a safe and supportive environment for women experiencing multiple unmet needs such as homelessness, domestic abuse, drug and alcohol use, trauma and involvement with the justice system. They also offer holistic, gender-specific, trauma-informed support through collaborative group work, alongside multi-agencies and therapeutic interventions such as Art Therapy.

Vicky Davis, head of women’s community services at The Nelson Trust, said: “We are so pleased to welcome Lianne to our Bristol Women’s Centre as she takes on a 10-day sleepout across the country.

"While this may seem like a challenge, to many this is a reality, and we urge people to recognise that homelessness has had a drastic rise since the Covid-19 pandemic.

"As for the women The Nelson Trust and great organisations such as The Esther Project support, the dangers of violence against women sleeping on the streets is alarming, change needs to happen.”

Lianne’s challenge will also be documented by film maker, Laura Harvey of Vibe Immersive, and later screened as part of a special conference organised as part of International Women’s Day weekend, on March 7th.

The Esther Project and Esther House are women-only initiatives providing gender-specific supported living accommodation as well as a weekly programme of activities to reduce isolation and improve skills. The ambition is to open a hub, a safe space where women can meet, access key support services and develop new skills for employability alongside an alternative to custody, situated in a rural location for women with more complex needs.

Lianne said: “But the bigger dream, within the next 18 months, is to have a 24/7 space that offers provision such as those we're visiting over the 10 days. We’re looking at how we can meet all those needs and learn from all these amazing spaces.

"What's good practice? I want to see what's working for them in the areas of counselling, employability, homelessness and women in and out of the criminal justice system. There's some great projects out there.”

The challenge is also being supported by Warwickshire sponsors Lockwoods Ski & Outdoor; Raised Modular Flooring (RMF); The Leader Marketing Partnership; Cool Fox Tees; Comtec Translations, Esque Beauty and Pentlands Accountants and Advisors.

Lianne said: “We’ve got to stop that cycle of abuse. Women caught up in domestic abuse don’t dare leave their partner but if they do they end up in poverty and lose their house and that’s the trigger for the whole mess they end up in.

"And women are being thrown into overcrowded prisons for stealing a loaf of bread to feed their children, and non-violent crimes when they should be getting treatment for the pain and trauma they've previously gone through. Why are we not treating women the right way?”

Money raised will fund women’s services in Warwickshire including the future hub. To sponsor Lianne visit: https://localgiving.org/fundraising/Her-Fight-Our-Night-10-day-sleepout-across-the-UK