Ms Marie Brown:

I will start and if I leave anything out, I am sure members will let me know. The family justice centre will offer existing services, so it does not displace any services, but they will be collocated in the old convent building. The idea is that everyone will be trained and while they will have different professions, we will all have the same approach. Research has shown that families must make as many as 23 visits to other agencies when domestic or sexual violence first occurs. They get worn out and that is a barrier to their coming forward. Having the agencies in place and making the agencies do the work instead of the victims has been shown to be more successful.

I first saw that model seven years ago in New York.

In New York I was part of a community builder programme, which is a peace building programme. I saw the programme in operation and was instantly attracted because it was working in a diverse city with many communities. I was also attracted to it because of the difficulties we were experiencing in Northern Ireland where some communities will not go forward to the police either because of the past or because they felt intimidated. The services were not working for a range of other reasons but other models are available. The family justice centre will sign up to a partnership with a centre in San Diego where the main training academy for family justice centres in the United States is located. When I visited New York, one family justice centre was in place and a second one was in development. There are now six family justice centres in New York, one in each borough, and they are being established elsewhere. For example, five other European countries, including Germany, are starting to develop family justice centres. We will sign up to a partnership with these centres and we hope to receive some European funding to help us develop something in the North.

If we have one centre on the island, we will have a place to bring people. It would be possible to provide joint training for staff and various agencies. I do not know how this would develop but given the very tight budgets, we could certainly do much more in terms of sharing some of the things around domestic violence and adopting existing models rather than inventing new ones or paying for different training. We have already established links to a group in Galway. The family justice centres work very well because satellite clinics can be established in rural areas where people do not have the same supports as people in urban areas. We will have to take an innovative approach. We have developed Internet and texting services and women are starting to contact us through the Internet. For example, we use Skype, social media and so forth to try to reach families who would be difficult to reach otherwise.

In terms of the trafficking of women, our centre has been designated one of the centres to provide accommodation and services for trafficked women. We work with the Executive to provide these services and trafficked women come into the centre. All of those who come to us at present do so on referral from the police. Like everything else, when one starts to work in a certain area, one realises that there is a problem. In the case of trafficking, we are starting to realise that it exists. Trafficked women receive automatic support in the centre through an inter-agency approach. We hope to be able to provide free legal advice and obtain funding for an on-the-day big barrier for women. People seem to forget about women who are working or are on limited budgets. The legal process can be very expensive and receiving good advice on what one's options are immediately and knowing what is available can reduce confusion and remove the need for running around. For this reason, it is important for agencies to work together to decide how to provide help and support.

Ms Corcoran had a meeting with our "Voices" group and one of the main issues that arose was social security and the blockages and barriers facing working women, for example, those who have a house to sell and do not have money to live on. Agencies must come together and share resources if they are to work more effectively. In our case, one agency at a time will deal with a family and all the agencies know what the others are doing. It is a poor use of resources to have six agencies becoming involved in one family simultaneously and then all of them moving on at the same time.

Our centre is a build to invest scheme. It is located in a convent in Derry which is a listed, protected building. Derry is the City of Culture 2013. The centre is in the city centre which means any woman can walk in while shopping. We selected the location because it is neutral and we are open to all creeds. We plan to have an exhibition centre to celebrate women's contribution in Northern Ireland and other issues. The exhibition centre, like the coffee shop, will operate as a social economy business and all of the proceeds will go to families.

We are examining how to get families into back to work schemes. We have a training agency and a business plan has been done with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Two partners from London were so interested in work that they made a commitment to provide volunteers for five years to help us with some of our work.

I referred to under-reporting of domestic violence. Derry has the highest rate of reporting in Northern Ireland because we reviewed services and took a creative approach to how we reach women.

In terms of housing, we have built 16 houses on the site and we have another site with nine apartments. The women will be housed at these locations. This was done on a business model under which we acquired land, negotiated with government and resold it. We have a treatment centre, which will open in Derry in September. I invite members to visit the centre, which will offer programmes and courses as well as child care facilities. We will receive direct referrals from social services and we also have workers in one of the police stations. This is how we receive referrals of sexual violence cases. The model is based on a model I observed in Boston. Women may not speak about rape to police officers but many will speak to women's advocates on site in a police station. We are required by law to report crimes and we inform women that we must report any crimes to the police. Increasingly, women are starting to come forward. Our criminal justice workers are available to support the families in question in the process. One of the major shortcomings of the process is that women tend to fall out of the process if they are not kept fully informed or if supports are withdrawn.

There is also a great deal of intimidation. The dissident threat is alive and well. In some communities in Northern Ireland it is not considered acceptable for people to go forward to the police. Those who do so will feel intimidated and threatened. We have to get past this obstacle. This is the reason I would like to bring the police in with other agencies. Derry has the only domestic violence unit in Northern Ireland. Having campaigned for and secured this unit, I would like the police who are involved in it to work alongside their colleagues in social services and victim support. There is no limit to what we want. Whatever needs women identify, we want them to be made available. The domestic violence unit is already in place; it is simply a matter of providing a place for it in the building. The statutory agencies' role is to pay the rent and maintain the building. We would have victim support and the different agencies in place.

There are still dissident and community threats. Some of this involves the obvious physical threat from dissidents, while in other respects it is a much more cloaked threat. One needs to be careful where one puts money into communities. We need to ensure communities do not start to deal with these issues alone. These problems must not be buried in communities as this would create ghettos in which the problems would become worse. That is my concern. For this reason, we need to have a neutral building and accessible policing. This means people should not have to pass through four security gates and barricades to enter a police station before having to give their name in a loud voice.

One would be seen on the street outside when one was going in and one could be asked, "Are you an informer?" Those are the real barriers to going into a police station. If we take them out and put police in with their colleagues and start to normalise the position, then communities will become normalised in turn because people will be able to walk in off the street.

Reference was made to trafficked women. There are also women who are in forced marriages. Such marriages are happening in Northern Ireland and we keep a register in respect of them. Any woman who is leaving the country can register the fact that she is doing so and where she has been. Those are the issues which are emerging. We have new communities coming into Northern Ireland and we quickly need to come to terms with some of the issues that arise for these families if we are to get a grip on matters. We need to do this soon before areas become controlled, meaning that families cannot get out. I sit on the policing partnership in Derry and the latest matter with which it dealt related to ten year olds. Community representatives were chastising parents about their children being on the streets and social services became involved. That is not a matter with which community representatives with no training should be dealing. It is, rather, for the relevant agencies and the justice centres to consider issues relating to families with problems.

We have a range of training, we are involved in schools and we have healthy relationships with those with whom we work. We have a great deal of work which is ongoing. We were in Galway recently doing some joint work with the people there and we shared information on how we operate. That is our view in terms of the justice centre. Central to that will be the voices forum. We will always invite women to the voices forum in order that they might evaluate matters for us, provide feedback in respect of what is missing and what should be included and outline their experiences. Women are central to all of this. I really believe that the police in America would not have invested money in this if there was a possibility that it would not work. Family justice centres are springing up right across the US. They are invest-to-save models and we will definitely share resources. However, we can also be more creative in what we develop for families because we will have access to joint expertise. We will get to know each other's boundaries. Part of the design of the justice centres is that they are open-plan. Dividing walls and separate offices are not allowed. It is not just about co-location.

We are working with the Strathclyde police in Scotland, which has a very impressive record in respect of domestic violence. Their chief inspector visited us and stated that one would have to have three heads in order to work in the domestic violence area in Northern Ireland. He saw the difficulties involved and was shocked at the state of the police station. He said, "No victim alive would go in there. How can you operate?" I informed him how we do so. The Strathclyde police have co-located with victim services in Scotland and we are meeting with them and examining their toolkit. It will not be just about the American model; we will also consider best practice from elsewhere and transfer it to our centre. If we have that, then we can try to share it right across the board. We cover particular areas but women everywhere can contact us and we will link them with services in or near their own areas. We will also provide advice. There are men who also suffer. For example, some men have experienced sexual violence. This will also provide an opportunity for them to come forward. When they do so, they require immediate support and access to proper expertise. That is what we hope the justice centre will provide.