Finding Support
There are more places to turn than you may realise.
Across England, nearly 3,000 charities, specialist organisations, government programmes, local authorities, and community groups provide support to women during and after abuse.
That support extends far beyond emergency help, with organisations helping with housing, money, legal issues, personal safety, food and household essentials, emotional wellbeing, children and families.
This page brings together information about what support is available, where it can come from and how to begin looking for what may be relevant to you.
Though a wealth of support exists, finding what meets your needs can involve extensive searching.
Help with housing may come from one organisation, financial support from another, and legal advice, safety, children or household needs from others. Each may work in different areas and under different eligibility criteria, while information about them is spread across websites, directories and other sources.
To make things easier, we have distilled much of this information below, bringing together what support is available, who provides it, what can affect eligibility and how to find organisations that may be relevant to your needs.
Support Across Your Life
Help Comes From Many Places
Finding the Support Available to You
Different Routes to Help
Knowing What May Be Needed
Knowing Where to Look
If searching for support feels like too much right now
The information above explains how different forms of support work and how to find them: what kinds of help may be available, who provides it, how eligibility is usually determined, how support is accessed, what you may be asked to provide and where you can look.
You can use that information to carry out your own search.
But if you are at a place right now where that sounds like too much, we have created a resource where most of that work has already been done and distilled into a directory.
The Harbour Lights Support Directory
We have searched for charities, government and local authority services, benevolent funds, community organisations and programmes offered by companies, and brought the information we found together in one place. This is to make something easier in a time of difficulty.
If you are interested in knowing more, you can find the Harbour Lights Support Services directory here.
Support Services Directory