Maison des Femmes Dublin

Maison des Femmes Dublin is a project to create Ireland's first hospital-anchored space for women affected by DSGBV — somewhere safe, warm and accessible. It is inspired by a successful French model initiated 10 years ago in Saint-Denis by Dr Ghada Hatem.

Right now, Safe Ireland describes the path a woman has to go through as "a stressful maze of interactions with public and private services". What we aim to build is a single place where she meets a coordinated team of medical, psychological, social and legal experts, who are trauma-informed care trained, working together, around her, so she doesn't have to tell her story over and over again. That's what CUAN, in its Third National Strategy, called a wraparound service, delivered through integrated local pathways. 

Our philosophy follows from that: not to duplicate or compete with what Ireland's frontline experts are already doing brilliantly, but to unify and optimise their impact by giving them the right physical space and shared protocols to work in an integrated way.

 We're starting with a focused test at the Rotunda Hospital, bringing together domestic violence support and maternity care. Right now, we're in the early, exploratory stage — building the project itself, and just as much building the political recognition and support it needs to exist — and recruiting our board members to file for a CLG status.