There is a significant population of women in society who experience overlapping complex disadvantage connected to trauma, subsequently or concurrently experiencing other disadvantages such as homelessness, addiction, criminalisation or mental health conditions. The combination of these factors can create a life limiting and confusing array of issues that are interconnected and difficult to address, both for the woman and for her children or wider family. Agencies and organisations can be confusing, single issue or difficult to reach for these women, creating systemic failure to meet the expressed needs of women in society.

This presentation discusses research framed within feminist qualitative research. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to consider the findings from data collected from 24 in depth interviews with organisational decision makers, peer mentors and mentees from women's community organisations in England (Braun and Clarke, 2022). The findings from this study identify that one-to-one peer mentoring is a complex form of community level support that provides a distinctly different approach from the more formal, statutory, community provision many women with multiple and complex disadvantage experience. A model of voluntary one-to-one peer mentoring has been created as a result of women's voices and experience with this study, incorporating three core elements of practice: Strength, meeting expressed needs and ethical foundations (Gilbert, 2023).

Dr Beverley Gilbert is a Senior Lecturer in domestic/sexual abuse and criminology at the University of Worcester and course leader for the online postgraduate modules in Understanding Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence. Prior to her academic role, she had over 30 years of experience working within the criminal justice system. She was a Police Officer in the West Midlands deployed in various uniform and plain clothes roles, including as a Detective Family Protection Officer. Then, as a Probation Officer, Beverley worked with individuals who posed a high risk of causing harm, including perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence. She was a semi specialist officer working with custodial cases, including those serving Life and Indeterminate Sentence prisoners. Beverley has been a sessional Expert Domestic Violence Risk Assessor for London based organisation DViP in the Family Courts.