ONE million pounds has been made available to help victims of crime by the Thames Valley’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

PCC Anthony Stansfeld will be responsible for paying for services for victims from October and will be handing out cash to deserving organisations.

He is encouraging bids from groups including those who provide support to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence and to young victims of crime as part of the second funding phase.

Mr Stansfeld said: “Supporting victims of crime is one of my key priorities and I want to make sure that services are available to help victims cope and recover from the harm they have experienced.

“There are many organisations that provide crucial support to victims of crime and I hope that this funding will assist them in continuing with their current work and even building on it by creating new projects where there are gaps in service.

“I am particularly keen to see applications that will be supporting my priority areas which include victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and young people as well as services that provide psychological counselling or victim-centred restorative justice.”

In June, Mr Stansfeld announced more than £600,000 of funding across the Thames Valley area as part of the first phase of this allocation.

Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre was one of nine groups in Oxfordshire to benefit from more than £400,000 of this, with the money going on an independent sexual violence adviser.

Refugee Resource, which provides support for refugees and migrants, received £38,760 towards providing counselling.

Domestic abuse charity Reducing the Risk was given two grants – one of £25,000 towards an independent domestic violence advice service and another of £28,000 towards its domestic abuse champions network, which is a group of people who work across a range of agencies and who are trained to recognise domestic abuse and support its victims.

Romy Briant, chairman of Reducing the Risk, said: “The money will go towards building our champions service and ensuring we can keep the independent domestic violence advice service.

Fully commissioned victim support services will begin in April next year.

  • Applications for bids should be made by noon on Friday, September 12. To apply visit thamesvalley-pcc.gov.uk
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