A SWINDON charity that helps women and young people recover from the horrors of domestic abuse has received a grant from the Adver’s parent company.

The £1,650 funding from trustees of the Gannett Foundation will help sustain an eight-week recovery course for children and young people at Swindon Women’s Aid.

The Gannett Foundation owns Newsquest, which owns the Adver, and gives thousands of pounds of grants to good causes in communities served by its local newspapers ever year.

Staff at the refuge that supports domestic abuse victims were thrilled that their grant application had been successful.

Caroline Smith, children and young person’s support services manager for the charity, said: “This is brilliant news, we were quite surprised to hear about it.

“We run this course throughout the year. It helps young people recover from what happened, reduce the likelihood of them becoming a future victim or perpetrator, improves their self-esteem significantly, helps them deal with their anger and teaches them new coping strategies.

“It’s a very supportive course because the children, who are often not ready for counselling, get to speak to other people who have been through similar things and talk about them openly.

“The course is a key part of what we do. We get very positive feedback, so it’s fantastic to have the grant money we applied for just in time for Christmas.The number of referrals for this course has been increasing and this money will allow us to put on more courses and meet that demand.

“Our next course starts in January and we had 16 children in the last two.”

Swindon Advertiser editor Pete Gavan said: “It’s great that Gannett supports such fantastic local causes and all the valuable work they do. Swindon Women’s Aid is such a vital and deserving charity and I am so happy to be part of an organisation which has helped them continue making a difference.”