North Devon Women's Aid

Thematic Work Area: Improve the Annetta Lightburn House Outreach Building

What was the need?

The Outreach Building was bought in 2002 with a legacy left to North Devon Women’s Aid by Mrs Priscilla Anne Lee Burke. Although we know the donors name we do not know anything about her and to this day, her character and motives have remained a mystery. The building was named in memory of an inspirational lady that spent a short time at our refuge. She showed great strength and determination in recovering from her experience with domestic violence and then with her battle with breast cancer, she stood for everything that North Devon Women’s Aid represented and therefore the building was named in her honour.

The building was built in the late 1700’s and was at the time of sale a retail premises with living accommodation upstairs. Prior to the building work just taken place very little had been changed to the building. The layout of the building gradually became quite restrictive when our workforce increased by 166% and we constantly couldn’t meet the demand of women wanting to attend our courses because of the lack of room. Because of the buildings age, a lot of work was required to ensure that it remains structurally viable. With scope to extend at the back of the building for more office and meeting space with an accessible toilet, North Devon Women’s Aid sought funding to give the organisation some extra breathing space and provide a good foundation for its future service.

What have we done?

Safer North Devon have contributed £20K towards the extension work to enable an improved and accessible environment for women and children needing our support and for our staff. The new space will mean we can sustain effective delivery of our valuable service to families experiencing domestic violence.

What are the results of our work?

The extension has been completed and the space is currently being utilised as offices. Further work is still underway to improve the layout and structure. We have an open day planned for 17th April 2009 at 4pm and we plan to have photographs then.