Spotlight

Mercedes-Benz Gold Coast partners with Safe Haven Community

Mercedes-Benz Gold Coast have teamed up with local charity Safe Haven Community to raise awareness for their mission and helped provide the organisation with a brand-new Mercedes-Benz vehicle.

Safe Haven Community provides early intervention pathways for women and children to escape abusive relationships before they escalate into physical violence.

Safe Haven Community executive director Jaeneen Cunningham says the organisation’s goal is to give women the means to access a pathway toward a new and better future.

“The horrible stories reported in the media about domestic violence are only about the 20 to 30 percent of women and children who experience the worst of it,” says Ms Cunningham.

“What you don’t hear about is the remaining 70-odd per cent, where women are in an abusive and controlling relationship that hasn’t yet worsened into physical assault.”

Ms Cunningham says Australia’s current government-funded support networks for domestic violence sufferers only cater to those in the worst possible situations, whereas Safe Haven intervenes before this point.

“We enable women to get out of these abusive and controlling relationships before they end in violence,” says Ms Cunningham.

“The hardest part for women in these situations is that they have nowhere to go. That’s where we step in.

“We place these women in safe housing situations for a two to four-week period so they can get their life back on track, within a secure environment and with all the support necessary during this challenging and transitory time.”

The organisation currently has around 400 homes across Australia that are Safe Haven designated.

“People will donate a room within their home to Safe Haven, so we can place women who have escaped an abusive relationship and give them somewhere safe to live while they organise a more permanent living situation,” says Ms Cunningham.

“This gives these women their dignity back and allows them to start to trust people again.”

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 1 in 6 women have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence, and just this year alone 37 women have been killed as a result of domestic violence.

“Domestic violence is a real issue in our society and COVID-19 has only helped to worsen the situation,” says Ms Cunningham.

“We really need Australia to rally together to support the women and children who are suffering in abusive and controlling situations, before they get worse.

“We’re very grateful for the support and assistance we’ve received from Mercedes-Benz Gold Coast and look forward to working with them in the future.”

If you’d like to help end violence again women, show your support by donating towards Safe Haven’s ‘Fiver for a Survivor’ program, the results which can house a female for two weeks.

Alternatively, you can donate a room to Safe Haven with their ‘Register a Room’ program.

To find out more about Safe Haven Community, visit their website here.