How Restored speaks up

In the Church

We believe that the Church is God's great idea to bring transformation to the world. However, so often, churches are unaware of the reality that domestic abuse happens within their congregations, and when survivors seek support from their churches, they aren't equipped to respond. That's why we make it a key part of our mission to speak up about domestic abuse within churches and Christian settings, and inspiring God's people to do something about domestic abuse.

We:

• Train churches and church leaders to appropriately identify and address domestic abuse.
• Produce baseline information on family violence: We've done this in churches across Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia & Peru, as well as conducting groundbreaking research in the UK looking at domestic abuse within the church.
• Create resources like our Church Guide, to help churches understand domestic abuse and begin to know how to respond
• Speak and write at Christian events and across the Christian media, raising awareness of violence against women, domestic abuse and how churches can respond.

In the UK

We influence government policy and advocate for faith leaders to be included in national responses to violence against women and girls (VAWG). In the past we've lobbied the UK government and connected with MPs on the issue of VAWG, providing evidence for parliament and written questions and briefings to the House of Lords. In 2021, we were proud to contribute to the Statutory Guidance for the Domestic Abuse Bill, ensuring the inclusion of a section on spiritual abuse and that faith is recognised as a listed characteristic for special consideration by statutory services.

Other key achievements in our UK advocacy work include co-founding the Faith and VAWG Coalition to build bridges between members of Faith Communities, Faith-centric organisations and domestic abuse specialists & organisations. In 2015, we organised a Faith Leaders Forum, hosted by Lord McColl at the House of Lords, where leaders of the UK’s main faiths made a commitment to do all they could to end violence against women. You can download the declaration and our partner FaithAction’s recommendations document here.

Internationally

Restored advocates for survivors of domestic abuse and violence against women around the world and has special consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council. We have close connections with a range of Christian organisations working to end domestic abuse, and our Church Pack has been translated into more than 10 languages.

We've had the privilege of speaking at the United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women parallel events, most recently in 2021, when our CEO Bekah Legg spoke on 'Harnessing the Power of the Church to End Domestic Abuse'. In 2020, we collaborated with the World Evangelical Alliance to create CNEDA, the Christian Network to End Domestic Abuse, providing a space for Christian organisations around the world to come together to share their knowledge and experience and to combine their voices to speak up for women subjected to domestic abuse.