History of the Men's Advice Line

The Men's Advice Line was launched as Devon MALE in March 2003 as a pilot project with an initial twelve month funding stream from Devon County Council.

The project started with very modest objectives:

To offer a range of support, information & counseling services to men who are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence and abuse from intimate partners
To provide a telephone advice line for a minimum of 28 hours per week
To provide face to face outreach work
To liaise with other relevant service providers from the statutory and voluntary sectors

The projects aims have been:

To safeguard and support men who are experiencing domestic violence and abuse at the hands of an intimate partner, regardless of age, ethnicity or sexuality
To raise awareness about male victimisation
To develop a county-wide resource
To conduct on-going research both in terms of existing provision and prevalence/severity/context of abuse
To contribute to the understanding of male victims of domestic violence and abuse, both locally (Devon) and nationally

The helpline soon started receiving calls from outside the county of Devon and it became obvious that a different set-up was needed. In 2006 the Home Office suggested that Respect could run the helpline and allocated the funding (Respect was already successfully running the Respect Phoneline, also funded by the Home Office). Part of the funding was used for the operation of the helpline and another part for a Male Victims Development Officer in order to meet some of the above objectives.

In April 2007 the helpline was re-launched with the name Men's Advice Line and a freephone number, open for 3 days a week and a total of 18 hours.

In July 2008 the Men's Advice Line was accredited by the Telephone Helplines Association with the Quality Standard.

In February 2009 the Men's Advice Line extended the opening days and hours, it's now open Monday - Friday 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm.