Christina is 52 and from Nigeria. She came to the Angelou Centre for support after her oldest son Ade referred his mother to the Centre. Ade came to know about us through his college. He felt helpless and had moved out of the home due to abuse and wanted to help his mother.
Christina talked to one of our advocates, who listened to her experiences and worked with her to form an action plan for what she wanted to happen next. Christina had experienced physical, verbal, emotional, and physiological abuse, as well as coercive control and immigration-based abuse perpetrated by her husband.
Christina’s situation was high risk and she also had a younger son who was at risk, so within an hour we worked with other agencies including social services to create a plan to move her to safety. Social services was unable to provide emergency accommodation.
At first, Christina was hesitant and extremely anxious about moving to a refuge – she thought it would be like an immigration camp where she would be deported. She was particularly close to Ade, so the team at Angelou worked with him to help explain to Christina what the refuge was actually like. She agreed to be referred for a space at the Angelou Centre.
During the initial call with Christina, our team helped her make a plan to call the police or stay at her son’s house if the situation escalated. She agreed to put an emergency bag together with key documents at hand if she needed to leave quickly. It was late evening by this point, so staff stayed on the phone with Christina while she traveled to our safe accommodation.
Once Christina was in a safe place at Angelou, she was referred to a solicitor for an urgent non-molestation order and an immigration solicitor so that she could apply for a separate claim and be entitled to work in the UK. She was very eager to get her resident permit so that she could make a living for herself and her son. Christina is now actively engaging with the courses that the Centre provides and is making great progress. She was offered one-to-one counseling with a bi-lingual counselor and also attended art therapy classes for her wellbeing. Whilst in the refuge,she received support to apply for council housing and universal credit and was awarded priority banding due to experiencing domestic violence. As the immigration process is still ongoing, she receives regular updates from the Angelou team.
*Names have been changed to protect privacy