About

Our Vision & Mission

Our vision is to create safer communities where everyone can live free from domestic abuse, violence against women and sexual violence.

Our mission is to provide high quality, innovative, end to end services which enable individuals and families to thrive.

Our Strategic Plan

Download

Board Members

Mandy Rayani (Chair)

Mandy worked in various nursing roles in the NHS for 40 years, upon retirement at the end of 2023 she didn’t want to suddenly stop doing what she enjoyed and that is trying to make a difference to those who need care and support and to those who work hard to provide it. Taking up this voluntary role with Thrive Women’s Aid is just one way in which Mandy hopes to be able to make a difference.

Mandy started her nursing career in 1983 as a mental health student nurse and after qualifying went on to initially work with older adults with dementia. Her career has provided me with many opportunities to work with a wide variety of people in many different settings including a spell in Welsh Government, Cardiff & Vale University Health Board, Solent NHS Trust in England and finally back to Wales where she thoroughly enjoyed my final role as Executive Director of Nursing, Quality & Patient Experience for Hywel Dda University Health Board.

Strategy, quality, governance and safeguarding have been consistent features within each of Mandy's diverse roles and it is this skill set she hopes to put to good use within Thrive Women’s Aid.

Married for 33 years, with two grown up children who have flown the nest, Mandy enjoys walking her rather large dog, cooking and eating wholesome food with friends, gardening, trying to get fit and foreign travel.

Louise White

Louise has 20 years HR experience, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and has a Master’s Degree in Employment Law. She currently works as the Head of HR at DVLA, leading on all people issues for over 6,000 employees. She believes that people are the most valuable asset in any organisation and is committed to creating a positive working environment. Louise has a particular interest in championing women’s issues in the workplace.

Louise lives locally, in Port Talbot, with her husband and the last one of her 3 grown up children who is still at home. In her spare time, she likes walks along the beach with the dog rain or shine, watching live music and dining out.

Karen Tipple (Vice Chair)

Karen has worked within the supported housing sector for 7 years and is currently a Service Manager within the Thrive team at United Welsh with responsibility for partnership working and delivering health and wellbeing contracts. Prior to this Karen has managed Supporting People services including homeless hostels and floating support services. Karen originally trained as a Probation Officer after graduating from University and worked as a Probation Officer for 8 years before moving into housing. Karen has a keen interest in ensuring that services are delivered based on what matters to the person using that service and has recently completed the Vanguard Method for Person Centred Services programme.

Karen lives in the Vale of Glamorgan with her husband. In her spare time she enjoys gardening, growing her own vegetables and long walks along the beach.

Catherine Morse

Catherine was appointed onto the Board in January 2024. Catherine is a qualified Solicitor specialising in disputes concerning children and matters involving domestic violence. She has worked in this field for over 7 years and is often representing those that have been the victim of domestic abuse in all its forms and has successfully obtained numerous protective injunctions for her clients throughout her years in practice. It is as a result of working so closely with these women that Catherine decided she wanted to use her knowledge and skillset to assist Thrive in its continued development and growth so that the organisation can continue to provide the all-important service that it has done for many years.

Catherine practices and lives in South Wales and in her spare time she is either in the gym, out walking her dog or busy planning her upcoming wedding!

Louise Fleet

Louise is currently employed at the Wales Audit Office (WAO) as Manager of the Performance Development & Guidance Team, supporting auditor colleagues with audit guidance, learning and development, and ensuring compliance with internal quality framework for audit work.

Louise is an elected employee Board member of Wales Audit Office (WAO) and is a member of the HR and Remuneration Committee.

Louise has significant experience, at a senior level, of auditing public sector bodies, analysing and interpreting complex data, making judgements and forming reasoned conclusions based on robust evidence.

Since 1993 Louise has been a Magistrate and in 1999 she became a Chairman in the Adult Court and Family Court in Swansea.

During 2017/18 Louise was the High Sherriff of West Glamorgan.

Louise is also currently the Chairman of the Neath Port Talbot Child Contact Centre.

Louise is a keen golfer and in 2010 was Appointed Director of the Board of Ryder Cup in Wales. She also enjoys keeping fit, reading, music, theatre and cooking.

Hannah Boyle (Treasurer)

Hannah is an ACA qualified Chartered Accountant with experience working in both practice and Industry. After qualifying at a leading financial services firm, she now works as a management accountant for FEI Foods Ltd in Llansamlet.

Hannah lives in Bridgend where she grew up and returned to after graduating from the University of East Anglia (Norwich).

Hannah is a keen runner and volunteers as treasurer for her local running club. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, being active and learning new things.

Stephanie Grimshaw

Stephanie is a Labour Councillor for the Aberavon and Baglan Moors ward in Neath Port Talbot Council as well as the Head of Public Affairs and Communications at Welsh Women’s Aid.

Stephanie has been personally campaigning and advocating for the end of violence against women and girls in all forms for many years off the back of lived experience. Stephanie is passionate about the role that all levels of government can play in pushing for societal change and an intersectional response to the epidemic of violence that women and girls have to face. Prior to this, she worked for the local Member of the Senedd and as Legal Defence Officer within the Civil Service.

Stephanie is originally from North West England but has lived in Port Talbot for nearly 10 years and enjoy spending time with her 2 cats, 3 rats and her horse Phoebe.

Joanne Juliff

Joanne is former teacher, an Entrepreneur, Mindset Coach, Community Leader and single mother of 3 who is passionate about all things to do with Wellbeing and unlocking long-forgotten potential in everyone she meets.

Joanne is used to juggling lots of roles which include running Joanne Juliff Coaching, which works with female leaders to break down barriers in their professional and personal lives through the teaching of her unique Empower Programme.

Joanne also established the non-profit Empower Inspire CIC in 2022 as a response to the Covid pandemic, with the purpose of creating Community groups aimed at reducing isolation and promoting inclusion and relishes her role as a Singing for the Brain facilitator with two community groups in Margam and Cwmgwrach.

Joanne feels very fortunate to be a Trustee with Thrive Women's Aid, a responsibility she's held since June 2022, and within that role is completely committed to improving the lives of survivors of Domestic abuse within the Neath Port Talbot area.

Our History

Founded

1979

Our organisation was founded under the name Port Talbot Women’s Aid and in 1980 the first refuge was opened in a house provided by Port Talbot Borough Council.

Outreach and refuge Support

1992

A Floating Support scheme began in 1992 with Dewi Sant as the Registered Social Landlord and a large house with six family sized bedrooms was opened in partnership with South Wales Federated Housing Association (now United Welsh Housing Association).

Children's Services

2000

New projects started to expand our offer of services which included support for children and young people impacted by domestic abuse.

Women's Centre opens

2006

A Community resource opens, where women in the community call in for support, information, workshops and training courses in a safe environment.

30 Years

2009

Our organisation celebrates 30 years of Women’s Aid in Port Talbot and the Afan Valley. Our name was changed to reflect the work undertaken in the valleys area and so we became Port Talbot and Afan Women’s Aid or PTAWA.

Move on Accommodation

2010

Our five bed ‘Move-on’ accommodation was opened, extending the reach of our residential service provision. We also appointed our first Manager, having previously operated as a collective.

Celebrate 20 Years in Current Refuge

2012

PTAWA celebrates 20 years in the current refuge. Since 1992 approximately 900 women and 1200 children have been accommodated in our refuge.

Male Support

2014

We began supporting male abusive parents in a bid to improve safety, reduce risk of harm and ultimately prevent domestic abuse.  

Thrive Group Wales

2017

In June 2017 we created Thrive Group Wales. A social enterprise with the purpose of creating a sustainable income stream for our organisation.

Thrive Women's Aid

2018

Thrive Women’s Aid was born. While supporting and empowering women in the local area is at the heart of what we do, we felt that the time was right to change our brand to reflect the needs of our service users, who are based across the entire Neath Port Talbot area. We felt that we needed to reposition our brand to show the breadth of services we offer. Our new brand name has been chosen by our service users who wanted something positive, warm, and friendly.

Celebrate our 40th Anniversary

2019

For 40 years, our beloved charity has provided a haven for women, children and young people in Neath Port Talbot, helping them to rebuild their lives and regain their independence in safe communities.

Thrive Housing

2022

We established Thrive Housing to create a portfolio of properties that we could offer to women who were experiencing difficulties finding suitable accommodation for them and their children during the national Housing Crisis.

Celebrating 45 Years of Thrive

2024

In 2024, Thrive Women's Aid are celebrating 45 years of specialist services in Neath/Port Talbot. With figures from the 2023/2024 Impact Report showing that the demand is increasing, and our services are needed now more than ever.

Seren Môr

The Seren Mor Network is made up of the following VAWDASV provider partners:
  • Bawso
  • Hafan Cymru
  • New Pathways
  • Thrive Women’s Aid
  • Swansea Women’s Aid

The main aim and purpose of the network is to strengthen, sustain, develop and protect domestic abuse, sexual violence and violence against women services across the region. Our partnership has an ethos of mutual respect, trust, fairness and collective action on the basis that a collective approach is stronger than individual organisations acting alone, so to become more resilient and able to respond effectively.

Please direct any queries to westernbay@hafancymru.co.uk

Seren Mor Network Logo

Philosophy

For 45 years, Thrive Women’s Aid has provided a haven for women, children and young people in Neath Port Talbot, helping them to rebuild their lives and regain their independence in safe communities.

At Thrive we believe everyone has the right to live in safety and have a future without fear.

We believe that domestic abuse is a gender-based issue that is a cause and a consequence of gender inequality and a violation of human rights.

Women are disproportionally affected by domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women. Many women experience different forms of violence because they are women.

We primarily deliver support to women affected by domestic abuse. For this reason Thrive is committed to providing services by women for women. Being women-centred and women-led provides space to share experiences and address the unequal distribution of power across political, social and economic spheres, allowing delivery of woman-centred support informed by values of empowerment, rights and self-determination.

However we don’t just help and support women in need, we help the whole family to thrive to ensure the cycle of abuse is broken for good.

 

Sustainability

At Thrive, we are committed to taking action for a sustainable future by reducing our carbon footprint as an organisation. In line with the Welsh Government’s goal to achieve Net Zero by 2050, we pledge to reduce our carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.

In order to do this, we have taken various steps including:

Transportation Processes

Travel through commuting and business activity has one of the highest impacts on our carbon footprint. To combat this and in line with WG’s Aim for 30% of the Welsh workforce to work remotely or locally, all colleagues have the opportunity to work from home 40% of the time, with meetings conducted virtually, where possible. We focus on employing colleagues from the local area, with 88% of TWA’s staff work less than 15 miles from work. Furthermore, to encourage car sharing we pay a higher mileage rate.

Governance Processes:

Thrive has appointed a Trustee Champion to drive change, supported by the CEO, who holds a Carbon Literacy Certificate. This ensures environmental and sustainability considerations are integrated into strategic and operational decisions. These topics are on the agenda for all Trustee, management, and team meetings.

 

Community Processes:

Thrive Women’s Aid recognises that fighting climate change is a joint effort. We work with tenants to encourage behaviour change by discussing recycling and running a sustainable home as part of our quarterly visits. For service users, we promote reusing and recycling by arranging “swishing” alongside delivering adult and children activities that focus on the environment, wellbeing and growing plants/food.

Procurement Processes:

We have strengthened our procurement processes to focus on sourcing goods and services from local suppliers, supporting the foundational economy. We prioritise purchasing renewable, recyclable, and sustainable equipment and supplies, and limit products transported by air. When selecting new contractors, we prefer those with an Environmental Policy addressing key issues like waste disposal.

Supporters, Donors and Partnerships

Thrive Organisation Achievements and Staff Beneifts

In 2023, Thrive began supplying health & wellbeing cover with Westfield Health for all of staff members.

The cost-of-living crisis and the impact of the pandemic hit everyone hard, even those working at the organisation – that’s why Thrive believed it was necessary to provide a basic level of cover for all staff members.

This cover includes dental costs, optical tests, diagnostics, chiropody, therapy and money-off gym memberships.

Thrive Women’s Aid gained their Living Wage Employer accreditation in late 2023 from the Living Wage Foundation.

This accreditation ensures that all staff members at Thrive are earning a wage that is enough to live on is vital for the organisation.

By taking this step and joining the Living Wage campaign, Thrive are ensuring that basic fairness is at the heart of what they do, choosing to go further than the government minimum for workers’ wages.