Grampian Women’s Aid complete mentoring support with the DACA Accreditation Project

We are pleased to announce that Grampian Women’s Aid has successfully completed mentoring support with the DACA Accreditation Project.

Grampian Women’s Aid began mentoring with us in September 2024.  The mentoring involved specialist DACA worker training and the development of a standardised way of working with local criminal justice partners.  In March 2025,  only six months after the mentoring support began, Grampian Women’s Aid launched the DACA Service, offering women in the North of Scotland domestic abuse court advocacy support for the first time.  

Grampian Women’s Aid took an incremental approach to the development of their DACA service:  initially offering support to women involved as complainers in domestic abuse criminal court cases in Peterhead Sheriff Court.  Once they had established effective ways of working and grown in confidence, they extended the support to include women complainers involved in domestic abuse criminal court cases in Banff Sheriff Court.

The DACA Service is a great success for Grampian Women’s Aid and women in Aberdeenshire.  The DACA Accreditation Project has thoroughly enjoyed working alongside the team during this journey and to see how the service has developed. You can read more about the service they provide on their webpage. 

If you are a service interested in DACA mentoring, please click here and contact us at scotland@safelives.org.uk for further information. 

Please note you will be required to meet the following criteria: 

• Work to a gendered understanding of domestic abuse 

• Offer DACA support to everyone that meets the criteria in the specified area 

• Work towards The Domestic Abuse Court Advocacy Standards 

• Apply for accreditation in due course