The Compass Project is a two year (April 2024 – March 2026) project led by national charity Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) which we are part of alongside Living Without Abuse (LWA) who provide services in Leicestershire and Rutland.
The project aims to make sure local services work together to better meet the multiple and complex needs of victim-survivors of economic abuse, to:
- keep survivors safe
- hold abusers accountable
- rebuild economic stability after abuse.
Economic abuse is common. SEA research tells us that one in seven women in the UK has experienced economic abuse by a current or former partner in the past 12 months. It frequently occurs within the context of intimate partner abuse and violence and is recognised in law as being a form of domestic abuse and is defined in the Domestic Abuse Act.
Economic abuse can include things like one partner controlling another’s access or use their own or family money, denying them money, removing bank cards, and controlling spending. It can include making it impossible to hold down a job and retain any kind of financial independence. It is a cornerstone of the control that many perpetrators choose to exert – if you can’t buy a bus ticket or a sandwich, or pay your own rent, how can you possibly consider leaving?
Our work in the project includes raising awareness of economic abuse with our service users, and, also, with those working in the other services that they may engage with such as local authorities, healthcare and other charities. We want to educate people in these places on the reality of economic abuse, so that we can work together to create real system change.
Since the beginning of the project:
- 57 women of Brighton and Hove have attended an economic abuse awareness workshop
- 134 professionals have attended an EA awareness learning event
- 146 professionals have attended the half day training course “Recognise and Responding to Economic Abuse”
The Compass Project aims to tackle economic abuse by co-developing a sustainable model of economic advocacy, understanding local need and delivering specific local response. It is a pilot project, operating in our area, Brighton and Hove, and in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The Project is actively recording learning and insights gained through the work, and the aim is to repeat the work elsewhere. The Project seeks to work with a truly diverse range of survivors and organisations.
The Compass Project is funded by The Smallwood Trust and the Aviva Foundation – our thanks for to them, and all the partners, for the work we’ve been able to do so far.
Think you might be experiencing Economic Abuse? Even if you’re not sure, non-judgemental help is available.
If you’re in Brighton, contact us.
If you’re in Leicestershire and Rutland contact Living Without Abuse
In any emergency, call 999.
