Alpha Vesta are committed to ‘breaking the cycle of domestic abuse through awareness, prevention and early intervention’ and conduct ground level research regularly to look at better ways we are able to reach people through workplaces and communities.
 
There are many myths and stereotypes that exist around domestic abuse about who may be affected or impacted by it.  Some are directly impacted – others are indirectly impacted as may be family members, friends, work colleagues or members of the community, male or female.
 
One theme that has emerged throughout our Survivors Symposium and Workforce Culture Reviews is that not only can men be victims of domestic abuse but they may also be seeing, hearing and noticing things around them that could indicate domestic abuse.  There is often a lack of confidence and understanding to see the signs in their own relationship but also amongst people they know.  This lack of confidence is fuelled by those myths and stereotypes that sit around domestic abuse.  Alpha Vesta’s Survivors Symposium wanted to place this hypothesis under a bit of scrutiny and have launched a COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS poll for anyone to distribute amongst as many men as possible amongst their family, friends, work colleagues and community.
 
Alpha Vesta have formed a working group within their Symposium to analyse the results which we hope, will allow us to create bespoke awareness packages and early intervention training resources to better reach all members of the community regardless of gender or sexuality.

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* 1. Roughly how many adults do you think are affected by domestic abuse during their adult lifetime?

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* 2. How many children do you think will grow up in a home where domestic abuse occurs?

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* 3. Domestic Abuse only occurs in intimate relationships and always has to have some kind of violence occurring?

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* 4. The social and economic costs of domestic abuse amount to how much each year?

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* 5. Have you or someone close to you ever experienced domestic abuse?

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* 6. Would you know some of the signs to be looking for if a family member, friend or work colleague was experiencing domestic abuse?

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* 7. Would you be confident to know where to go for help and support if you yourself were experiencing domestic abuse or a family member, friend or work colleague was?

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* 8. Would you take matters into your own hands and try to help someone by yourself?

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* 9. Would you be confident that you could resolve it by yourself?

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* 10. Have you got anything you'd like to share in terms of men's understanding and confidence around recognising and responding to the signs of domestic abuse?  This could be some personal or professional experience, thoughts that you have about better engaging with men in this space or suggestions you've got around better awareness, prevention and early intervention work across communities and workforces.

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