AS AN organisation that works to reduce violence against women, the Women’s Support Project is committed to paying the Scottish Living Wage.

“It’s not that people who are poor are more violent, but if you are rich you have the resources to leave a house where there is abuse and that’s an option poorer people may not have,” pointed out project manager Jan Macleod.

“If you are on the breadline it’s a nightmare. Very often it is women who are in low-paid jobs and on top of that they may need to pay for childcare.

“The living wage is a good thing in itself as it reduces the amount of stress on individuals and families and can help give children a good start in life.”

Macleod added: “Our approach for a number of years has been that the living wage is the minimum that we would offer.

“Since the recession, small charities such as ourselves are finding it increasingly difficult to secure funding for long-term, full-time posts and, as a result, we have on occasion employed people on short-term projects.

“We found that because of the difficulties graduates and people with good experience are having in finding employment we were getting fantastic applications from very well qualified people.

“We aim to pay a decent hourly rate to reflect the level of experience and quality of work we are getting from people.

“It’s worth it because we get very good commitment from them for paying a fair wage. It also helps them move on as it provides a bit of a bargaining chip if they can say they were paid a decent amount for their work with us.”

Established in 1983 to bridge the gap between the voluntary and statutory sector, the Women’s Support Project is based in Glasgow but works across Scotland alongside statutory agencies to reduce violence against women and improve responses.

“When the project started one of big themes was encouraging multi-agency working,” said Macleod. “Women who have experienced violence may have complex issues and no one agency could solve all their problems. Since then the situation is much improved as the Scottish Government is very much about promoting partnership-working to reduce abuse.”

Due to funding cuts, the organisation is not able to offer individual support but concentrates on providing resources for training and awareness to frontline organisations working with women and children who may be at risk of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

It aims to raise awareness of violence against women and children and its effect, and works to improve services for those affected by it.

“Key themes in our work have been highlighting links between different forms of male violence and promoting an inter-agency response to the abuse of women and children,” said Macleod. “Our work is informed by a feminist analysis of male violence and an understanding of the links and overlaps between different forms of violence, discrimination and oppression.”

Since it was launched in April 2014, more than 600 organisations in Scotland have signed up to the scheme as official Accredited Living Wage employers, paying their workers at least £8.45 per hour.