Our Manifesto

The pandemic has highlighted that the home, a place of sanctuary for many, offers little comfort to some. For victims of domestic violence, overwhelmingly women, pre-pandemic working patterns provided a means of spending the day away from their tormentor.

People living through abuse aren’t rare cases. According to our research, one in every three German women who enters at least one relationship in her lifetime will experience domestic abuse. More German women have been murdered by current or former partners in the past twenty years than the combined total of European soldiers who died in Afghanistan in that same period. For many victims of abuse, the home is their war zone.

At Frontline, we wish to end the culture of silence around domestic violence. The stigma surrounding the discussion of domestic violence not only emboldens and protects abusers - it lengthens the time victims spend in abusive relationships.

Starting in 2022, Frontline will train business leaders, HR teams and staff volunteers on how to identify whether a colleague might be suffering from abuse at home. We will go through everything from how to approach a survivor with care and sensitivity, to services you can refer them onto for further support, to designing an official “domestic abuse policy” for your workplace – whether remote or in-person.

This is just the beginning. At Frontline, our intention is to build capacity across society - starting with workplaces, and later expanding to health, police, and education providers – in order to create a world in which victims of abuse never need to look far to find the support they need and deserve in the communities where they live.