THE work of an anti-violence women's group in the Borders has been recognised this week at an awards ceremony.

CEDAR - Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery - is a therapeutic psycho-educational programme that takes place over 12 weeks with groups for children and their mothers running in parallel.

This week the mum's group was named as the winners of the Scottish Borders Violence Against Women Partnership Award for 2018.

The award was developed by the Partnership to recognise the commitment and excellent work of people in communities across the Borders who are making a significant contribution to addressing violence against women and girls.

Adapted from an innovative Canadian model, the CEDAR Borders programme is based on recognising that domestic abuse is damaging to children as well as to the mother and child relationship.

Since starting in 2013 it has dealt with 177 referrals, with 98 children and young people and 68 mothers going on to take part in the 12 week programme.

Louise MacLennan, Violence Against Women Executive Group Chair, said: “We are delighted that the award has gone to a group of women who have not only gone on their own recovery journey but have used their experiences to help others.”

The CEDAR Mums were nominated for their commitment to helping individual families find ways to reconnect while also using the programme to support their own recovery.

Judges were further impressed with the way they had gone on to support other graduates at a monthly group meeting and to help professionals be more informed about the reality of domestic abuse.

They did this by hosting a conference and workshops in 2017 where they used their lived experience to explain that everybody has a role to play in tackling domestic abuse.

The group picked up the award, which is supported by the Scottish Borders Safer Communities Team, at a ceremony on Monday

Councillor George Turnbull, Scottish Borders Council’s Executive Member for Community Safety, added: “These inspirational women should be extremely proud of what they have achieved and are truly worthy winners of this year’s award.”