CCChat-Magazine_Issue-25-The-Further-Learning-Issue

Natalie Talbot
on women who use violence
N
atalie
Talbot is the founder of Care2Talk, who have
been running a Change Behaviour Programme and
Partner Support Service since 2011. They are a nonfunded
community service offering support to men,
women and children in the community.
M: You are the founder of Care2talk, could you tell the readers a little bit
about what you do and who you provide a service for?
N: We are quite a unique service, we are, primarily, a behaviour change
programme and I have been working with perpetrators since 1999 and with
victims since 1996. In 2011, I decided to set up and start my own behaviour
change programme because there was nothing around in the London Borough
of Hillingdon where I had wanted to set up the programme. I started by
renting a little office by the hour. I was still working full time at that point and
then decided to go part-time building up the service until I went full time
running Care2talk. It is always important to have a partner support service
attached to a change behaviour programme and so I looked at some of my
friends who were doing similar things and advertised out for volunteer
counsellors I trained the counsellors up in support work, so they could work
with the victims. I then moved into our own office in Uxbridge (in the London
Borough of Hillingdon).
After a few years, we noticed there was a lot of demand and not enough
services for women victims of abuse at that point and so we started recruiting
more student counsellors to work in the counselling service. We get referrals
from police, IDVAs, self referrals and some local services. Most of the men
who were using intimate partner violence and abuse were self- referrals who
wanted to make changes to their behaviours and stop using violence and
abuse. They were either using abusive behaviours or were told they were using
abusive behaviours and wanted to make changes. After a while I started
engaging with social services and local agencies and started getting referrals
from local agencies.
We also started to expand our counselling service and at the moment we have
15 volunteer counsellors. Some have been with me for several years and they
do an amazing job counselling victims I am very proud of the work we do with
victims. The victims men and women come to us via the police, social services,
men’s helplines and women’s organisations.
Making The Invisible Visible