We held our first ever charity dog walk – ‘#pawsforthought’ at Calderstones Park on Sunday 9th March raising over £200 as well as raising awareness of the work we do in supporting women and girls in South Liverpool.
For every £5 donation by walkers owners and dogs received an SLDAS snood to wear on the walk. There were prizes for the best dressed dogs on the day and 1 year old bichon frise Coco, owned by Alexia age 11 was picked as the model furry fundraiser, even smiling for the presentation photo (pictured).
Our new campaign called #pauseforthought is to make people stop and think about domestic abuse in our community and this dog walk with a play on #pawsforthought was the first of many events to take place this year.
In a recent report issued by The Women’s Organisation, in 2023, Merseyside held the title of the worst region for femicide in the UK. Domestic abuse-related killings account for 85% of all femicides in Merseyside. SLDAS has been around supporting domestic abuse survivors for 26 years and last year alone we supported over 1300 women and girls experiencing domestic abuse in South Liverpool.
People can support the #pauseforthought campaign in a number of ways. Local cafes can sponsor or host an event such as a coffee morning. Shops could have collection boxes or cake sales to raise funds for SLDAS. Bigger businesses are being asked to take on the charity as its charity of the year for 2025.
Director of the charity Rebecca Radcliffe adds: “You don’t have to commit to a lot to make a difference. Anyone could just promote #pauseforthought on their own social media to friends and family. The more people we reach, the more we can help.”
A huge thank you to every dog and their ‘hoomans’ who took part!