22 July 2024

Hestia is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a generous £1 million grant over three years thanks to The Julia Rausing Trust, to fund the development of our support services for women and children fleeing domestic abuse.  

The Julia Rausing Trust has been established in memory of the late British philanthropist Julia Rausing, who died in 2024.

Hestia has provided support for women and children escaping domestic abuse for over 25 years, including both specialist domestic abuse refuges and community-based support across London and the South East. In the last year, over 4,200 women and children accessed our support.

This funding will enable us to further develop our trauma-informed approach to supporting survivors of domestic abuse, and to empower refuge residents with tools and techniques that they can take with them when they leave refuge.  

The funding will also contribute to Hestia’s new ‘Be You’ programme – creating a community of support around survivors, with a programme of activities led by female volunteers that combats isolation and helps to rebuild confidence.

Julia Rausing co-founded The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust in 2014. She was widely known for her unwavering commitment to philanthropy and her impactful contributions to a wide range of UK charitable causes. She was instrumental in building the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust into one of the largest philanthropic funds in the country.  

The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust has previously supported Hestia’s work in this area during the COVID-19 pandemic, with grant funding that enabled us to support victims with no access to public funds; help women to move on from our emergency refuge accommodation and settle in new homes; and to provide dedicated support for children’s safety and wellbeing in our refuges.

Dame Moira Gibb DBE, Chair of Trustees at Hestia said:

“We are hugely grateful to The Julia Rausing Trust for their generous support. At Hestia, we see every day how trauma can be a significant barrier, preventing survivors of domestic abuse from being able to move on positively with their lives. 
We are fully committed to supporting survivors to find safety, hope and purpose, and the ‘Be You’ programme will be a vital part of that. This funding will have a transformational effect on our ability to ensure our domestic abuse refuges consistently offer the highest quality, trauma-informed approaches when supporting survivors. It will be a fitting legacy for Julia Rausing who championed many initiatives of women supporting women.”   

Read more about Hestia's domestic abuse support