CSJ Alliance News 19 January 2010

Twelves Company, Plymouth

We caught up with Martine Cotter at Twelves Company in Plymouth just before Christmas. We first met Twelves Company in 2006 when they applied for the CSJ Awards and won for their exceptional work helping adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The small charity has grown to provide a Sexual Assault Referral Clinic (SARC) for the South West that has won Home Office Beacon Status. They provide crucial help for victims of rape and sexual assualt. "It was a sobering visit," said Chris Bullivant, CSJ Projects Director, "but as ever, the Twelves Company team are tackling a very real problem, working with the most vulnerable at a critical time, with real drive and determination to provide them the best care available."

www.sarcplymouth.co.uk

Picture: Chris Bullivant, CSJ Director, with Martine Cotter, CEO of Twelves Company, Plymouth.

Open Door, Plymouth

Since the publication of the CSJ Report on Asylum in the UK, Asylum Matters, CSJ Alliance Member Open Door in Plymouth, Devon have continued to pick up the pieces of the current UK asylum system, working with hundreds of people left in limbo by the current arrangements. The charity has a growing programme to help teach English, to explain English culture to first generation migrants, and to provide hospitality for those the UK government have allowed into the country but will little provision for. Open Door Director Cassie Roberts also gave us feedback on our policy reports and the need to include more case studies from the South West. We were delighted to give her a limited edition CSJ mug!

www.odils.com

Picture: Chris Bullivant, CSJ Director, with Cassie Roberts, Director of Open Door, Plymouth.

Ormiston St Anne's and Castle Children's Centre, Colchester

The CSJ visited a Sure Start in Colchester last week run by Ormiston Childrens and Families Trust, a regional children's charity working across East Anglia. The visit was an opportunity to look at how a larger charity works with local authorities, to discuss centralised targets versus localised responses, and to look at the specialism being created within each centre run by the charity. Chris Bullivant, CSJ Projects Director, was also able to invite feedback on some of the CSJ policy proposals for Family Hubs.

Picture: Chris Bullivant, CSJ Projects Director, and Geoffrey Prescott, Ormiston Chief Executive.

www.ormiston.org/community/opus41.html

Introducing CSJ Alliance and Awards Manager, Zoe Briance

We're delighted to welcome Zoe Briance to the CSJ Alliance team. Zoe has a background in the voluntary sector and publishing and has worked with voluntary groups in Mexico and India. Zoe will be visiting potential Alliance partners and keeping in touch with existing partners. She will also be working on the CSJ Awards 2010. "I'm thrilled to be joining the CSJ team with responsibilities for the CSJ Alliance," says Zoe, "The projects I've already visited have been inspiring. I'm really looking forward to meeting more of you and promoting your work to politicians."

Picture: Zoe Briance, CSJ Awards and CSJ Alliance Manager, or a recent trip to Whitechapel Mission, London.

Two new CSJ reports on marriage and the family

The Centre for Justice has published two papers in the last three weeks on marriage and the family. "Why is the Government anti-Marriage" was published on 28 December 2009 and puts our policy recommendations on marriage within context. Today, we have published our Green Paper on the Family.

We have come to believe that this country's peculiarly poor record of social dislocation is in huge part caused by family breakdown. Recommendations concerning marriage and strengthening family life are within the context of evidence-based policy recommendations aimed at reversing social breakdown.

The Centre for Social Justice Green Paper on the Family

The Centre for Social Justice
9 Westminster Palace Gardens, Artillery Row,
London, SW1P 1RL
t. 020 7340 9650

info@centreforsocialjustice.org.uk