Background

MDAN (Male Domestic Abuse Network) is the national community and information network for practitioners supporting male victims. The ManKind Initiative manages, funds and owns the portal and MDAN.

Since 2001, the ManKind Initiative has been supporting male victims of domestic abuse across the UK.

A core part of the charity’s mission has always been to enable the growth and improve the quality of support that male victims receive in their local community – whether that is via community domestic abuse services; professionals with the justice, health and housing sectors; the public.

This is at the heart of MDAN:

• To create a national community and network for practitioners and professionals
• To host and be responsible for the National Quality Standards
• To provide information about local and national services

A constant theme from services contacting the charity across the statutory sector (police, GPs, housing bodies, local councils) and third sector is that they are unaware of the range of services available to male victims at a national, regional and local level. This includes refuge / safe house vacancies and organisations providing services for male victims.

With the increasing number of men coming into contact with statutory authorities and service providers, it is vital that if they do not provide the direct support themselves, they know what organisations in their locality do.

The charity has been collating this information since 2012 in the form of a directory called the Oak Book which has been made available by email. This portal in effect is an online version and therefore makes it more widely available and accessible.

The organisations included are those providing “a tangible and explicit service that supports male victims”. This can be services that support men and women at the same time, parallel, or separate services. The key thing is that they are clear they support men.

This portal has been developed with funding from the Home Office 2018/20 Male Victims of Domestic Abuse Fund with additional support by Hestia and UKSAYSNOMORE.