I think organisations such as Trevi only get involved with PTWM for the bonus of having her name attached to them and what that means for their funding. It increases awareness of their business, it’s good for networking with larger companies and the local authorities and that leads to funding. I don’t know how things work over there, but over here all the local organisations compete against each other with tendering in order to secure contracts. We’ve just lost one to a larger DA service.
So, I’m not certain, but I’m guessing that it seems a good idea to these organisations to have someone with a large social media following involved with them just for financial-gains purpose, the newspaper articles and radio interviews. And vice-versa, PTWM gains exposure as someone who advocates on behalf of women fleeing domestic abuse and she’s created this identity for herself.
I think it’s a load of bullshit. No one looks that polished when they’ve been sitting with a broken woman all day, trying to find refuge space. This week alone i’ve had; one woman lose residency of her child (she’s a victim not a perp, but the perp actually won residency. You can imagine how she’s feeling); one woman requiring police intervention for her safety; another requiring intense support due to family courts order (DA related), four families in emergency accommodation, one needing a food parcel. I’m overweight, grey hair, can’t sleep, stressed, can’t switch off.
This is all bullshit - she’s not portraying lives of women in crisis. A woman escaping domestic abuse doesn’t want freebie fancy clothes that have been #gifted from someone who wants publicity. They need tampons, shampoo, food, a weekly bus ticket to get to the job centre and back, a suitcase so that she’s not carrying her belongings in bin bags.
No one I work with contact someone on Instagram and say they need help with flooring. They’d go without or they’d apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment. And likewise, no one would advertise a post code on Instagram either.