Celebrating its 10th year in operation in 2019 is SATEDA, a charity providing support, education and championing change around domestic abuse. The organisation provides a number of services including one-to-one support, support at court, counselling, adult group programmes and employability with volunteering opportunities, all of which are free at the point of access.
SATEDA now has 23 employees and 26 regular volunteers, one of whom is Project Manager Carey Philpott. She discussed why the work SATEDA was doing was so vital to the Swale community: “We have learnt that clients need more than support at the point of crisis and have established a unique journey of support. Our journey of support puts victims of abuse at the centre of decision-making. Helping establish safety for them and their families and then offering services such as counselling, group programmes and an employability programme, which helps clients to build confidence, develop skills and promote autonomy for clients who have been disempowered by their abuse. We rely on volunteers to ensure we can continue to offer our extensive services and the Employability Programme’s success is that clients who have been through abuse often go on to volunteer in our organisation.”
Carey commented on the significance of this being the tenth year the organisation has been operating: “Reaching the ten-year milestone is remarkable for a charity, we attribute this to the strength and commitment of our board and staff team. We ensure that all we do and offer has the client's voice at the forefront and that this voice is championed by us for change as part of our lobbying, educating and campaigning.”
Finally Carey spoke about why she felt that SATEDA deserved to be recognised at the 2019 Swale Business Awards: “SATEDA are outstanding at what we do, ensuring the client is at the centre of their journey of freedom from abuse. We have a dedicated work force that manages to achieve fantastic results that change lives from limited resources. Over the past 10 years we've really grown as an organisation and are proud of our programmes that offer a journey of support to clients enabling them to change their lives with lasting effect. On a business level we have developed an organisation built on robust policies and procedures, which ensures community and stakeholder trust in our ability to deliver. Winning an award will show our team how valued their contribution to Swale is, recognise how far we've come as an organisation and that we have evolved to ensure the client remains at the centre of our work.”
Swale House
East Street
Sittingbourne
ME10 3HT
01795 417 251
www.sateda.org