Her Circle (formerly REFORM)

Her Circle is an organisation which supports women who have, or are at risk of, experiencing child removal. Their aim is to break down stigma and affect change on a local, community, and national policy level around this issue. They operate in 3 ways:

1. Offering direct peer support group for women who have experienced child removal.
2. Conducting research with those who have experienced child removal first hand to understand the wider determinants and consequences this problem and inform the work we do.
3. Work across the public, private and third sector partnerships to create change within the system so future families have better outcomes

Their peer support group meet once a week on a Tuesday from 12.30pm to 3.30pm in a women’s only centre in Newcastle. The group use the time to speak openly in a safe space about the challenges they are facing or have faced. Child removal is such a stigmatised issue that many of our women don’t have any other safe and anonymous spaces to discuss and begin to heal from this trauma. The group is a confidential space meaning whatever the women discuss is kept within that room because we know that fear of reprisal is one of the biggest inhibitors to women finding support and getting well.