Men Standing Up: The Yorkshire-based charity helping male victims of domestic violence across the country

It was a large increase in men presenting at Bradford Cyrenians homeless service who were fleeing from domestic abuse, which led to Men Standing Up (MSU) - a service supporting male survivors of domestic abuse and violence - in September 2014.
By Lucy Leeson
Published 23rd Nov 2019, 11:45 BST

Since then, it has received more than 4,000 calls to its confidential helpline and helped more than 200 men find new long term accommodation after leaving abusive relationships.

The Bradford charity currently supports male victims from across Yorkshire and the rest of the country including London, Cornwall, Portsmouth and Brighton.

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Funded by grants from the National Lottery, MSU services include crash pads - emergency accommodation for men in a crisis situation; a freephone confidential helpline, temporary accommodation in sanctuary housing; furnished tenancies in secure accommodation, floating support, telephone support, and a men's peer support group.

It was a large increase in men presenting at Bradford Cyrenians homeless service who were fleeing from domestic abuse, which led to Men Standing Up (MSU) - a service supporting male survivors of domestic abuse and violence - in September 2014.It was a large increase in men presenting at Bradford Cyrenians homeless service who were fleeing from domestic abuse, which led to Men Standing Up (MSU) - a service supporting male survivors of domestic abuse and violence - in September 2014.
It was a large increase in men presenting at Bradford Cyrenians homeless service who were fleeing from domestic abuse, which led to Men Standing Up (MSU) - a service supporting male survivors of domestic abuse and violence - in September 2014.

Since September 2014, there have been 712 referrals to MSU and 4,363 calls made to the service's helpine.

A total of 72 men have accessed the crash pad since it was set up in 2016, while 59 men have been temporarily housed at the charity's dispersed accommodation. 201 men have been supported to move into other long term accommodation.

MSU Manager Rachel Chadwick said: "Although over the past few years there has been more awareness regarding male domestic abuse, there are still a lot of negative messages around male victims.

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"From our experience before accessing MSU, our service users have said they feel invisible as a victim of domestic abuse.

"Because of the lack of provision nationally, men just don't know where to go for support, instead they can turn to drugs, alcohol, self-harm and even suicide.

"Men need to know there are specialist services out there to support them with domestic abuse and more services need to be developed.

Anyone wishing to find out more about MSU can click here.