Lucy Humphrey – Managing Director, Leading Lives

Tell us about you

I am the Managing Director at Leading Lives, we are a support provider working with people with learning disabilities and autistic people in Suffolk.

What interested you in becoming a Domestic Abuse Champion?

I became a champion when I was working with the Short-Term Enablement team, the team would get referrals for a range of outcomes, but we began to see a rise in people needing support with their relationships. Working in social care makes you passionate about equality and fairness, supporting people with learning disabilities and autistic people with relationships also involves knowing how to pick up on the signs of domestic abuse and being confident about what to advise and where to support people to get help, and I felt that becoming a champion would bring positive change to an underrepresented group.

During the pandemic, I also supported someone close to me outside of work with leaving an abusive relationship, so that also confirmed my need to become a champion.

How did you find the course?

The course was amazing – it was heavy going but delivered at a pace that helps you process the experiences that are shared. Terri and her colleagues are very skilled in their delivery and incredibly knowledgeable, I went on to do DASH training to gain an understanding of the risk assessment process.

The main skill I learnt is that you need to encourage conversations with people if you have a concern but also have an understanding that a person will only disclose and share their experience and make change when they are ready – the most important thing is that they know you are there for them.

Since taking the training, how have you been able to apply the skills you have learned?

I have been able to apply my knowledge through case discussions with my teams when they are sharing the situations that they are supporting people with, we have trained further champions in the teams to have practitioners with increased knowledge.

I have also been able to take my learning and influence how we support our employees, we have domestic abuse resources available for staff, and we have champions available to support awareness in teams and be available to support individuals working for us.

What would you say to anyone considering becoming a champion?

Attend a course, you won’t regret it – it will broaden your knowledge and you can use this in work as well as outside of work, anyone can experience domestic abuse.

Many organisations struggle to support people experiencing Domestic Abuse and are sometimes not confident enough to talk to someone about it or encourage them to disclose.

Our Domestic Abuse Champions offer consistent information, advice and support which is helping to bring lasting positive changes for victims across Suffolk. Reaching victims as early as possible will prevent further harm.

To find out more about Suffolk’s Domestic Abuse Champions, visit the Domestic abuse and sexual violence pages.