By Liz Hall
A social enterprise has launched in the UK offering coaching and workshops to women who have experienced domestic violence and/or operate in masculine-dominated corporate environments.
Charis Coaching has as its vision “a sweeping, global cultural shift to gender equality in the workplace, the home and the community”.
Some 30 per cent of women in the UK have experienced domestic violence since age 16, according to data released in February 2014 from the Office for National Statistics. Less than 40 per cent of domestic violence crime is reported to the police, according to the report Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking: Findings From the 2004/5 British Crime Survey.
CEO, founder and professional coach Nicole Berg pointed out that it’s often hard to tell whether someone is being abused. “Having worked in a refuge, I can say that there is definitely no label on women’s foreheads; it’s women all around you.”
Charis operates a “Buy One Gift One” business model, which means that each workshop or set of one-to-one coaching sessions purchased will enable the equivalent to be delivered to women affected by domestic abuse in Greater London.
“There are lots of really good and necessary services for women who’ve experienced domestic violence. And we want to add to those. The feedback from our pilot workshops is that coaching offers a different and valuable space for these women, where they can talk things out, where there is zero judgement, nor an agenda which can be present with some services or the women using them can think there is,” said Berg.
Charis is looking for coaches to join its first cohort. Contact:nicole.berg@chariscoaching.co.uk
Coaching at Work is supporting Charis as part of our Campaign for Gender Equality. A fuller article on Charis will appear in the next issue.
See also Viewpoint on page 18