Staff from Swindon’s Family Time Centre have completed 50 days of yoga to raise £2,342 for domestic abuse charity Society Without Abuse (SWA).
To mark 50 years of helping victims of domestic abuse in Swindon, and also working with those who cause the harm to prevent it happening again, staff from the Family Time Centre, which is part of Swindon Borough Council, committed to practising yoga for 50 days.
The group stretched and bent their way to raising thousands of pounds through sponsorship from their own friends and family, as well as foster carers, connected carers, and other colleagues at Swindon Borough Council. The money raised will be spent directly on delivering services to support domestic abuse victims and empowering young people to prevent abuse in the future.
Jackie Bibby, Centre Manager for the Family Time Centre, said: “Every year we do something for charity and when we heard about SWA’s 50 for 50 challenge we wanted to support what they do as the charity is amazing and close to our hearts. Some of the families we support have experienced domestic abuse and we need to do what we can to make people aware of it.
“As a team we decided we wanted to improve our fitness so chose to do 25 minutes of yoga together every morning. Only one of us had done any yoga before but throughout the challenge we all felt better for it and were really proud of what we achieved. As we hit our initial target of £1,000 we felt spurred on to keep increasing it and as everyone who walked through our doors cheered us on, we kept increasing the target too. Now that we’ve finished, we’re all already feeling the need to go back to yoga every day!”
Natasha Moyles, Operations Manager at SWA, said: “We’re very grateful to everyone at the Family Time Centre for completing such a great challenge and raising money for SWA. Through their commitment to downward facing dogs and sun salutes, this donation will make a real difference to people in Swindon who are fleeing domestic abuse and their recovery from trauma.”
If you need advice for yourself or a friend relating to domestic abuse, call Swindon’s domestic abuse helpline on 01793 610610.
To find out more about SWA visit www.societywithoutabuse.org.uk.
