'Domestic violence changes who you are, but there is hope'

Lianne and Rebecca are in fits of giggles as they compare their paintings to the one they are copying, created by the artist leading their sip and paint event.

From the outside they look like any normal group of friends. But as little as six months ago, some of these women were in situations they felt they might never escape.

Everyone at this event shares a lived experience of domestic violence.

"I didn't know it was possible to feel as low as I felt in my darkest times and there's so many people that are feeling like that all the time," said organiser and fellow survivor Grace.

Her experiences led her to set up Held by Grace, a social networking group designed to help victims combat loneliness and isolation.

Having been helped in the past by Coventry Haven Women's Aid, Grace said she was grateful for the crisis support she was given but soon realised there was something missing as survivors like her looked to rebuild their lives.

"You've had that period of support when you're in a group and you've gone from being incredibly isolated to then being supported," she said.

"After that support drops off I don't want people to be isolated again, when they've already been through a situation that is incredibly isolating."

Despite only starting in May the group has already organised events like Pilates, therapy sessions and a yoga class, and Grace has recently registered it as a charity.

For Bec, who had to leave her home after experiencing domestic abuse, the events are a much-needed opportunity to find a sense of normality.

"A lot of women, they have to come away from an area that they were more familiar with," she said.

"So just having somewhere to go with a community around them, and to start feeling normal again and just to do normal things and to bring life back into their everyday is really important, especially for me.

"I'm a single mum as well so I'm juggling that at the same time, so it's really important just to be able to go out somewhere and be around other people."

All the Held By Grace events are free to attend thanks to fundraising and the support of local businesses.

Their most recent sip and paint event was sponsored by a cafe in Earlsdon, Coventry - the walls of which are adorned with messages of positivity.

They were a deliberate addition to the Gym Junky cafe by owner Ed Durnion, who only left prison in 2025 having served a sentence for a drugs offence.

After turning his life around, he said, he is now focusing on giving back to the community as much as possible. As part of that effort, he allowed Grace to use his premises at no cost.

"I don't think enough people support things like this - I'm all up for second chances and I think Grace needed help, so I stepped in and helped her," he said.

"When you come in here there are lots of messages of positivity on our walls, so when you leave, you feel better than when you came in and I know Grace is trying to do the same with her events."

Up to fifteen women at a time have been attending the events, but Grace hopes they will reach more people who need support.

"I don't think you can ever be back to the version of yourself that you were before because the nature of domestic violence is that it changes who you are as a person, it changes your core," she said.

"So if coming away from an event we put on, [they leave] feeling more positive, feeling like there is hope, feeling like there are other people that understand you and there is a community of people where you don't need to explain why you feel this way or why you're a mess or why you didn't sleep at all last night because they get it, that's massively important."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, help and support is available at BBC Action Line.