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Customer Involvement

Customer involvement

We put our customers at the heart of everything we do:

Consulting with women and girls to help them identify their own needs

Using trauma-informed consultation methods to identify and address underlying issues

Exploring together what can be done to help

Ensuring that a woman herself is in the driving seat/in control

Supporting women to make change at their own pace

Mentoring and peer mentoring

Together Women offers an innovative peer-mentoring service in association with our partner St Giles, which helps women develop their confidence and brings about positive change by connecting service users with peer mentors – former service users who have achieved positive change themselves and want to support other women to do the same.

Peer mentoring is a powerful tool for change and we encourage customers to consider whether they would like to become a mentor at any stage, during their time with us or beyond. Customers and ex-service users who are interested in becoming peer mentors are given opportunities to attend training programmes, including working towards the Level 3 Certificate in Advice and Guidance, supported by specialist Peer Mentor Assessors within our staff team. Peer Mentors are also supported to access work placement opportunities, with the aim of developing their skills and ultimately leading to sustainable employment.

What our women say

“Together women have helped me every step of the way. They have helped me get my own place and get a good job, I’m so grateful to Fiona for all her support. She is always there for me and I couldn’t of done this well without her. I am volunteering to help out with prisoners that are in a similar situation to the one I was in because it’s such a lonely, sad place to be. I think everyone who gets support from together women are so much more likely to succeed. I wanted to say thank you to Fiona for everything. I know I’ve got another year of support yet but I’m so grateful!”

Customer, age 25

“The mental health team introduced me to Together Women because my depression was so bad. This has had such a big impact on my life, it’s given me back my confidence. I’m much braver now. I used to just sit around doing nothing but now I’m much healthier physically which has helped emotionally too. I feel ready to get back to work, I’ve been inspired into a healthier lifestyle.”

Customer, age 53

“My son was put in foster care…and it was the best thing for him at the time…I just couldn’t be a mum to him. Together Women have changed my life. My son….is so proud of me…and glad to see me so happy. I’ve got my life back…I have increased my confidence and self-esteem and I have really come out my shell…[My TW KW] gave me the confidence to believe in myself and told me to go for it”

TW customer who is now a volunteer

“Thank you for listening to me and supporting me over the past few months, I feel it helped a lot having someone to talk to. I feel a lot more confident in engaging with services now and feel ready to complete a mental health assessment fully so I can understand my feelings and moods better.”

Customer

“I was sexually abused as a child and in a gang….I feel more confident in myself and I have truly learned a lot from your service. I feel better having someone to talk to and explain and break things down for me…I have learnt so much….I know where to go if I’m in a crisis.”

Customer

“Thank you for treating me like a human being and not a criminal. I lost everything I had including my job and didn’t think I would ever get anything back, but your support and confidence in me helped me re-build my life again. Thank you.”

Customer

“Thank you for listening and understanding whilst I navigated through a really rough period in my life last year. I feel a lot more positive and I’m looking forward to the future now.”

Customer