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Sunday 6 November 2016

Newsletter November 2016


In the last 12 months we have made excellent progress here at the Trust. We have sold lots of facilitator training events and lots of books. Chris Ashton has created a new one day training event to teach facilitators how to run the two day programme for men who want to improve. The first of these took place in November 2015 and was a sell out! The last one took place on 11.10.16 and was also a great success.

CONFERENCE
Our next Freedom Conference will be in Birmingham on 29.09.17. The last one  sold out months before the event. The price is now £65.00 per ticket. This included vat and ALL the proceeds fund the help line. 

NEW PROGRAMME We are currently running a pilot for a follow on programme called Freedom Forever. It is very successful so far and Chris will be providing a two day training event on 09.03.17.

FREEDOM PROGRAMME ONLINE
The online Freedom Programme is proving very popular and I have been consistantly adding animations to help with learning. See 'Rules of the Game' here:
http://www.freedomprogramme.co.uk/rules-of-the-game.php

Here is a link to feedback from the online course

The profits from all these sales have funded the helpline, 6 free weekly Freedom Programmes and the expenses for the volunteers in the Family Courts. In June we started our first programme in Salford and are recruiting volunteers who live in Manchester to start another programme in 2017.

Last year we have also funded two free mens programmes. We are delighted that Knowsley Community Safety Partnership hosted one of them in Merseyside on 21/22 April.
Here is a testimonial
'Hi Chris
 I would like to say thankyou for allowing me to come on the course over the last couple of days, especially at such short notice. I found it extremely informative and helpful.  I now hope to use what I learnt and apply it to my relationship with my partner. We are currently separated but remain in daily contact for our daughter, and are on good terms. With time and considerable effort on my part, there is a strong possibility we will be together again.   
As you know we are expecting out second daughter very soon. I think the thing that hit home for me was 'the bad father' section.
I would have previously claimed to be a really good and hands on dad which is true on most levels. However, due to the way I have treated my partner at times over the past couple of years in terms of 'the bully' and some aspects of 'King of the castle', I cannot and therefore I am 'a bad father'. This really hurt me.  Until now I have also used excuses for my moods and behaviour such as alcohol or job worries. I now know this is totally unacceptable.'

OVERSEAS TRAINING
Our own Clare Walker will be providing a three day facilitator training event in Cyprus on 20.03.17

TRANSLATIONS
'Living with the  Dominator' is currently being translated in to Polish and will be published on Amazon in the next few months. The translator Joanna Szurin will be taking the programme to Poland within the next year.

The little Mr Right and Mr Wrong cards have now been translated in to Polish and Urdu. 

MERCHANDISE
We now sell teeshirts, fridge magnets and little cards to augment our income. We have not applied for any LA funding at all so we are not in competition with other charities. We are so proud of our independence and self reliance. 

We have also been able to fund the Freedom Programme in Leicester with the help of our wonderful Clare Walker who has volunteered her time free of charge to facilitate it. Sophie Walker who is Clare's daughter helps her mother to facilitate this course.

Chris is now using the Freedom Programme 1-1 with children who have survived abuse. The success of this intervention means that we will soon be developing a "whole class' approach.

UK UPDATES
We know of organisations such as Family Groups Bedford, Central Bedfordshire Council, Safe in Sussex  and the Allens Croft Project Birmingham who are also running at least 5 groups a week. Between us we are reaching thousands of women. We are especially delighted that thanks to the amazing Lynne Smillie and the No Feart Community Interest Company the Freedom Programme for women has started in Glasgow after 15 years of being blocked by organisations with a different philosophy to ours. We are even more delighted that Lynne plans to roll out the mens programme in the city and in Scottish prisons  in 2016.

Brand New Development!
Bristol Freedom Programme for women with learning disabilities
Contact Hazel for info
07990558593  
bristol.freedom@mungos.org

We also send huge Thanks to all our followers on social media for helping us to spread the word about the Freedom Programme. I would also like to thank Amisha Surani from the New Day Newspaper for visiting our Leigh programme and writing about it.
Amishas article

There are millions of both women and men who need us but do not know of our existence. Thank you for banging on about us in 2015 and please continue to do so in 2016. Hugs from Pat Craven programme creator. xx