Too often, survivors of domestic abuse are left to navigate a system that struggles to protect them. Drawing on her own lived experience, Deborah Jones founded Resolute to change that. Through survivor-led support, training, and campaigning, she is working to shift the focus from responding to abuse after it happens to preventing it in the first place.
As part of Sound Delivery Media‘s Spokesperson Leadership Programme, Deborah reflects on her campaign to bring the ground-breaking Proximity Tagging System into reality and her vision for a future free from domestic abuse.
“Resolute is built on three pillars. The first is our home, The Lotus, a navigation hub for domestic abuse survivors. It brings advocacy, legal support, peer support, counselling, and EMDR therapy together under one roof.
As a survivor myself, navigating the system alone was horrendous. We now see more survivors losing their lives to suicide than homicide. I wanted to create a space in the heart of Barnsley where survivors and their families could feel supported, rather than becoming lost in a system that too often fails to protect them.
The second pillar is training. Alongside Claire Russell MBE, I deliver accredited training programmes to local authorities, law firms, and organisations that want to better understand domestic abuse. Every training package is tailored to the organisation to ensure it drives meaningful and lasting change.
The third pillar is campaigning. Through this work, I successfully helped bring the Proximity Tagging System into reality, representing the largest expansion of electronic tagging in British history.
The Proximity Tagging System means perpetrators leaving prison are electronically tagged, while survivors are provided with devices or apps that are monitored by a 24/7 live GPS system. If a protected exclusion zone is breached, an alert is sent to a control room, triggering a Grade One police response.
This shifts the focus away from victim-blaming and towards perpetrator accountability, reducing the need for refuge placements and helping to save lives.
The system is now being implemented for domestic abuse offenders released from prison, with a pilot launching across three police force areas. I pushed for South Yorkshire to be included as a pilot area and requested that the app, or the pilot itself, be named ‘Resolute’ as a testament to the journey from surviving to thriving. Whether my organisation exists tomorrow or not, I know I have achieved something that will make a lasting difference.
I founded Resolute because of my own experience of domestic abuse and the challenge of navigating a system that often feels as though it enables abuse rather than preventing it.
We provide dedicated advocates who stand side-by-side with survivors throughout their journey. Our biggest challenge is funding. With greater resources, we could employ more advocates and significantly reduce rates of abuse. Proximity tagging provides the deterrent that has been missing, and it is the cornerstone of our mission to build a life free from domestic abuse.
It is frustrating. Domestic abuse costs the UK billions of pounds every year. If we tackled it properly, we could invest more in prevention, early intervention, and technology that protects survivors. Apps such as Culpa enable survivors to collect evidence that can be used by police and solicitors, yet organisations often struggle to secure investment for these innovations.
The cost of a single domestic abuse homicide exceeds £1 million, not to mention the wider impact on mental health, addiction services, and communities. I became alcohol-dependent as a coping mechanism. That nearly cost me my life and left me with stage-three liver disease. We have to make tackling domestic abuse everybody’s business.
We need education at every level, from school curriculums to mandatory workplace training, in the same way we approach health and safety. At the same time, we need to be careful that interventions do not create further division. The solution lies in giving people the tools to recognise abuse and holding individuals accountable for their behaviour.
I would love to see a Resolute Lotus in every town. When survivors meet someone with lived experience, they connect on a level that others often cannot. I know my own recovery was only possible because my caseworker shared that understanding.
Organisations need to stop exploiting lived experience. Too often, people are invited onto steering groups without being offered supervision, support, or even reimbursement for their expenses. If organisations want to benefit from our insight, they need to value it properly and pay for it.
My ambition is to create change on a far greater scale than simply placing a poster on a toilet door. It is time for organisations to put their money where their mouth is.
One of the reasons I joined the Spokesperson Leadership Programme is because I want to refine my focus. With ADHD, I sometimes find myself trying to say too much at once, so I need to stay focused on Resolute’s three pillars. I also want to communicate my message with greater confidence.
I hate public speaking. It makes me feel physically sick. But it’s the fire in my belly that keeps me going. When I speak about these injustices, I want to learn how to tell my story in a way that inspires change, rather than reliving the trauma every time I step onto a stage.“
