IDAS, the largest specialist charity in Yorkshire supporting anyone experiencing or affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence, has benefited from a garden makeover at its Scarborough office.

A team of service users on unpaid work helped tidy up the gardens at IDAS winning praise from Izzy Birley, IDAS project manager for Scarborough & Ryedale. She told Jo Robson from HLNY CRC: “The rear garden of the building was overrun with weeds , tall grass and generally required a lot of work . All three men who attended Community Payback today have worked very hard and the final result is absolutely great.

“As a charity with limited funds Community Payback has created a usable, neat and tidy rear garden for our clients to access and make use of and also ensured that the cost of maintaining the garden over the next few months has reduced significantly as the hard work has been completed today. I have passed on my thanks to both the supervisor and her team today.”

IDAS services include refuge accommodation, community-based support, peer mentoring, group work and access to a free, confidential out-of-hours helpline.

Its team of accredited specialist workers support people through the criminal justice system in addition to providing emotional support and safety planning advice.

IDAS says: “While we recognise that the majority of victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence are women, we support anyone who is affected by abuse or violence and encourage male and transgender people to access our services.

“For children and young people, we have developed one-to-one and group support. Our young persons’ RYPP (Respect Young Person’s Programme) also works with families where the young person is abusive.”