Financially Included provides trauma-informed welfare, debt and energy advice to women who have experienced gender-based violence in Glasgow. It also delivers capacity-building training to frontline staff in responding to economic abuse.

The organisation has trained more than 130 money advisors across Glasgow and has just concluded its first training piece with 10 housing officers at Hillhead Housing Association. The training was extremely well received, with all survey respondents answering that their confidence in providing support for cases that involve economic and other forms of domestic abuse was high or very high after receiving this training.

Financially Included said: “As the Housing Bill develops, housing associations are facing new requirements to better support their tenants experiencing domestic abuse. This includes the introduction of a domestic abuse policy within their organisation and therefore, staff equipped to best support their tenants in domestic abuse situations.

“According to the Scottish Government, one in five women in Scotland will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime and in reported domestic abuse cases in the UK, 95% involved economic abuse (SEA, 2019). These statistics tell us that undoubtedly there are tenants with RSL landlords experiencing gender-based violence and economic abuse, meaning housing providers must develop their confidence and skills in responding.”

For training enquiries, contact financiallyincluded@gemap.co.uk.

The Scottish Housing News Charity Spotlight feature highlights the vital work of charities across Scotland each Friday. To include your local charity, whether housing-related or not, send your story and images to us at newsdesk@scottishnews.com.