Dundee Charity only UK finalist in International Competition

Eighteen And Under’s multi award winning VIP (Violence is Preventable) programme is the only UK entry through to the final of Changemakers collaborative competition “No Private Matter! Ending Abuse in Intimate and Family Relations.”

The online competition attracted more than 240 entries from 46 countries where social innovators from around the world showcased their most successful and groundbreaking strategies to end domestic violence.

Judges from the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Wait Institute for Violence Prevention chose 15 finalists for their outstanding innovation, social impact and sustainability.
Coordinator, Laurie Matthew said, ‘To be the only UK organisation through to the final of this competition is very exciting. I just hope that the public gets behind us and votes us into the winners spot.’
Voting is open to anyone who has access to the internet. To register your vote, go to www.violenceispreventable.org.uk and follow the links to the Changemakers website.
Notes for editors
About Eighteen And Under

Eighteen And Under is a registered charity, based in Dundee that offers confidential support and information to any young person, aged 18 and under, who has experienced sexual, physical or emotional abuse. The charity is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Global Alliance for the Prevention of Violence and they have helped thousands of young people in the Dundee area and throughout the UK over the last 13 years. For more information, visit their website at www.18u.org.uk.

About the VIP Programme

The VIP Programme is a multi award winning abuse prevention programme for children, young people and vulnerable adults throughout the UK.
It works on three levels:-
? Early disclosures - meaning abuse is stopped sooner
? Staying safe - avoiding violent or abusive situations
? Changing the mindset of potential abusers of the future.
The programme has won many national and international awards, including
2006 Scottish Social Services Council Care Accolades
SPECIAL COMMENDATION
2006 Scottish Crime-Stoppers–Community Safety Award
WINNER
2005 News of the World Children's Champion's individual award for Co-coordinator.
2005 Dundee Partnership Awards–Community Safety Award
WINNER
2004 Women in Cities International & International Centre for the
Prevention of Crime - Safety Award
For more information about the VIP programme visit www.violenceispreventable.org.uk.
About Changemakers
Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public that focuses on the rapidly growing world of social innovation. It provides solutions and resources needed to help everyone become a changemaker and presents compelling stories that explore the fundamental principles of successful social innovation around the world.
Changemakers is building the world's first global online "open source" community that competes to surface the best social solutions, and then collaborates to refine, enrich, and implement those solutions. Changemakers begins by providing an overarching intellectual framework for collaborative competitions that bring together individual social change initiatives into a more powerful whole.

Some Statistics (From the WHO)