J9 Domestic Abuse Initiative

The J9 Domestic Abuse Initiative is named in memory of Janine Mundy, who was killed by her estranged husband. The initiative was started by her family and the local police in Cambourne, Cornwall, where she lived and aims to raise awareness of domestic abuse and assist victims to seek the help they so desperately need.  Janine used to sign her text messages off with J9, hence the initiative’s namesake.

The original J9 initiative has been operating in Essex for the last 9 years and Alpha Vesta are delighted to be taking over the continued development and delivery of J9 for Essex from January 2024.

The J9 initiative within Essex is aimed at public and customer facing groups, businesses and organisations who are ideally placed to provide ‘Safe Spaces’ within our communities. This could be a local coffee shop, retailer, library, sports or leisure facility, food bank, the list goes on, but it is through the connection with local residents and families that provides us with the opportunity to support everyone’s basic human right to live a life without abuse and to be able to seek help at the earliest opportunity should they need to.

Anyone can attend the training which has been designed to;

• Help attendees build an understanding of what we mean by ‘domestic abuse’.
• Explore tools and resources to help recognise the signs of domestic abuse and feel confident to point someone in the direction of specialist support services.
• Support the creation of ‘Safe Spaces’ within our Essex communities for adults or children to access information and details of support services.  So that more people can access the help they need, when the need it.

Whilst anyone can attend the funded training session and receive a Certificate of Attendance, however, to become a fully accredited ‘J9 Essex Safe Space’, at least two thirds of your team will need to complete the training before we deliver our J9 toolkit and resource pack.

Those that complete the training are invited to join our quarterly online network meeting for Essex J9 Champions who will meet to talk about the impact of the training, the reach into the community, receive updates and connect with other J9 Champions.

Lucy Whittaker and Alpha Vesta have been an active member of SETDAB since 2019.  The Southend, Essex and Thurrock Domestic Abuse Board (SETDAB) is made up of representatives from agencies and organisations working to join up and better facilitate Southend, Essex and Thurrock’s vision to work together to enable everyone to live a life free from all forms of domestic abuse. The Board is responsible for designing and implementing the Domestic Abuse Strategy across Southend, Essex and Thurrock. SETDAB provides strategic leadership to address domestic abuse by providing a multi-agency framework, common ethos and co-ordinated approach to innovate, drive change and address domestic abuse. 

If you require access to support services as a victim, perpetrator or professional, please access the ‘Get Support Now’ via the SETDAB website.