Our relationship with Women’s Aid, the national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children started during the first lockdown, when the Gamesys Group wanted to work with a charity that resonates with both their customers and employees. Largely because of the Group’s corporate donation (£200,000), Women’s Aid were able to extend their lifesaving Live Chat service from two hours per day to six hours every weekday and enabled them to open the service for the first time on the weekend.

Gamesys also made available their sponsorship spaces on ITV’s Loose Women for them to raise awareness during all three lockdowns. When the Women’s Aid adverts went live in the first lockdown, the Charity saw a clear increase in donations which went up more than three-fold compared to the year before, with many donors specifically commenting that they had seen the Loose Women advertising.

Almost a year later the relationship continues through the Gamesys Foundation. The Trustees and Foundation are proud to be associated with such an amazing charity, who are making such a difference to so many lives, especially around the mental health of those that have lost friends and family during these difficult times.  The Trustees and Foundation are also delighted to be able to commit our support with a donation of £600,000 towards Women’s Aid over the next three years to help them launch and support their mental health and domestic abuse campaign, which will be launched in the next few months. We are looking forward to working together as the campaign progresses, to better support women and children living with domestic abuse and we are also looking forward to continuing our partnership with the Charity and helping to make a difference.

“We can’t thank the Foundation and the Gamesys Group enough for their incredible support when we needed it most and for Gamesys Foundation’s support over the forthcoming mental health campaign over the next three years. The initial donation and sponsorship opportunity have had a really positive impact on our charity’s work during the pandemic, and the further support from the Foundation now means that we are able to develop an important campaign that is going to have a significant impact on the lives of survivors of domestic abuse.”

Nicki Norman, Acting CEO, Women’s Aid

We also recently sponsored the Women’s Aid Winter Conference.

“Our winter conference was made fully accessible & affordable thanks to the sponsorship from The Gamesys Foundation.  We were proud to welcome them as our sponsor”

Teresa Parker, Head of Communications, Women’s Aid

At Women’s Aid we know only too well the long-term effects of domestic abuse on women’s mental health and the mental health of their children. The trauma does not end when an abusive relationship does, and we know how severely many survivors are impacted. Which is why we are committed to supporting survivors by developing and delivering the campaign Deserve to Be Heard that highlights this important issue. We are incredibly grateful to the Gamesys Foundation, who kindly chose to support Women’s Aid and fund our Mental Health Campaign with a donation of £640,000 over a three-year period. Our flagship campaign’s overarching aim is to change perceptions and attitudes towards survivors’ mental health which compound women’s trauma and inequality; and work towards reforming the funding and resourcing landscape to enable specialist women’s services – including those led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women –to deliver long-term healing.

Following the launch of the campaign in parliament in September 2021 with the Chair and the Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence and Abuse, Apsana Begum MP and Baroness Gabby Bertin, we now head into Year 2 of the campaign funding where we will create public awareness around the issue and use this as a foundation to challenge how the public, policy makers, service providers and supporters communicate about mental health and domestic abuse, shifting solutions from within medical model to sector-led trauma-informed model.

“Our new flagship campaign – Deserve To Be Heard – will ensure that the mental health needs of women are heard and responded to effectively. Vital survivor voices are at the heart of this campaign, and we will not be silenced until all women and children have access to the mental health support they deserve.  We thank all at the Gamesys Foundation for their support with this important campaign that will make such a difference to the lives of survivors of domestic abuse”

Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive, Women’s Aid