Housing Heroes Awards success for Norwich's Hebron Housing

Hebron Housing, based in Thorpe St Andrew, launched in April 2023 and supports women who have faced challenges and are feeling forgotten, desperate, frightened, hopeless and overwhelmed.

The trust works to provide housing and a diverse range of support for vulnerable women from around the county and beyond, with two asylum seekers from Ukraine and Eritrea currently living in one of the charity's homes.

Collecting Hebron Housing's awards were, from left, tenant Emma, senior supported housing officer Lou Henman, Chief executive Emma Pawsey, supported housing officer Clare Pretty and manager Sara Garrard (Image: Hebron Housing)

Emma Pawsey, chief executive of Hebron Housing, said: "We currently have 15 beds across four houses but would love to keep growing by one or two houses each year until we have between 10 and 15 homes.

"Women come here to move on from what they have experienced and we help them progress to the next stage of their lives.

"It is going really well and we have been at full capacity since autumn last year."

Hebron House is based in Stanley Avenue in Thorpe St Andrew (Image: Hebron Housing)

Tenants are referred to the service from all over Norfolk for support and have access to housing, courses, IT help and a community as they are helped to return to independent living.

They also help women to get back into work, with one former tenant now working for the charity having successfully passed through the process.

"The need is there, and we need more houses to support women further," explained Emma.

"It is bittersweet - it is good to see the charity doing really well and growing, but it also shows how great the need is for many vulnerable women needing to access support."

Hebron Housing has four homes around Norwich (Image: Hebron Housing)

The charity started in 1987 as Hebron House but became Hebron Housing in April 2023 after a range of factors - including a lack of funding - saw their work as a rehabilitation centre for women suffering from a drug or alcohol addiction came to an end.

"There is a huge lack of national funding for rehabilitation centres," explained Emma.

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"It needs to be looked into at a government level as centres like ours couldn't survive.

"It was a sad day when we had to change what we offered because it was very successful and extremely necessary - we helped more than 400 women in the several years that we were running rehabilitative support."

The women receiving support from Hebron Housing have access to workshops and training sessions (Image: Hebron Housing)

Now, the group has won two national awards for its work helping vulnerable women.

At the national Housing Heroes Awards held on Tuesday evening, organised by Inside Housing magazine, Hebron Housing won the top prizes for Best Team for organisations with fewer than 1,000 beds and the Inspirational Leader award for CEO Emma.

"We are all thrilled," she said.

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"We didn't expect to win - we were up against some big national charities.

"It is so amazing and lovely."

Donations can be made via the Hebron Housing website to support its work.

Domestic violence crimes in Norfolk

The work undertaken by Hebron Housing is growing even more significant as cases of violence against women remain high in number.

That is particularly relevant at the moment due to a spike in incidents during major football tournaments, with research by Lancaster University showing that cases of domestic abuse increase by around 40pc when England lose and around 25pc when they win or draw.

Hebron Housing does support women who have experienced domestic violence but is not a frontline service and doesn't experience first-hand the rise in crime at certain points in the year.

According to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk's website, around one in five crimes reported to Norfolk Constabulary are domestic abuse-related and the number of domestic abuse reports is on the rise.

However, the National Centre for Domestic Violence reports that only 24pc of domestic violence crimes are reported to the police.

Advice for domestic violence victims can be found on the websites of Norfolk County Council and Norfolk Constabulary.