Sheffield-based mums charity appeals for help from city residents to raise almost £19k

Mums In Need is a small, mainly volunteer-run charity. It has a great deal of experience, knowledge, and understanding about domestic abuse and coercive control in relationships and how to navigate through the family justice system.

To help more women in Sheffield and local areas, the charity needs to strengthen the team so have launched a crowdfunder, which has so far reached 27% of the £18,630 target with 20 days left.

The charity provides a wide range of help and support for mums. This includes counselling, one-to-one caseworker sessions, legal support, financial advice, and well-being workshops.

Laura Riley, the founder, started the charity from her laptop several years ago. It currently supports 40 women and 71 children and has a waiting list of 25 women with 45 children.

Laura says service users are called ‘mins’ – an acronym which stands for Mums In Need - and come from all backgrounds, classes, races and walks of life.

Controlling and coercive behaviour in relationships became a crime in 2015 and is punishable by up to five years in prison. It is defined as long-term controlling behaviour from partners, including bullying, degrading, gaslighting – tricking a person into doubting their sanity - and controlling someone's finances or alienating them from seeing friends or family.

Since the pandemic, Mums In Need has seen a dramatic increase in service users and the charity now has a waiting list of mums. Laura says these services are vital for many women and children within city communities.

To help more women, the charity needs to strengthen its team, grow and develop. It needs to raise £18,630 to appoint a team lead/operations manager to support the staff and volunteers who run MIN’s day-to-day operations.

The charity is also committed to establishing a finance lead and media and marketing team lead to drive those areas of the charity and shine a spotlight on the unique charity.

For more information on the charity call 0800 852 7414 or visit https://www.mumsinneed.com/home