Highlights from our resource library
With over 1,000 links in our resource library, I take great satisfaction and, dare I say, enjoyment from discovering a new organisation, article, or audio-visual clip to include. Each week, I highlight a few resources that I find particularly interesting or meaningful.
The first of these was inspired by an excellent article published by Domestic Abuse Education: Why Protecting Pets Could Save Human Lives: The Truth Behind Ruby's Law | LinkedIn. This, in turn, led me to Ruby’s Law: Protecting Pets in Family Law. This campaign seeks specific changes to current family law to explicitly protect pets in households where there is domestic abuse.
As a dog owner myself, I often find it distressing to see fundraising campaigns by animal charities, and the idea that these helpless, often loyal and affectionate creatures are used to inflict greater suffering and distress on vulnerable people represents a new low in an already troubling pattern of abuse and exploitation. It emphasises not only the cruelty inflicted on the animals themselves but also the deliberate psychological harm meant for victims, deepening trauma in ways that are both calculated and heartbreaking.
My second choice this week is a book written by Jonny Benjamin (2019) The Stranger on the Bridge: My Journey from Suicidal Despair to Hope – Bluebird. In 2008, twenty-year-old Jonny Benjamin stood on Waterloo Bridge, about to jump. A stranger saw his distress and stopped to talk with him – a decision that saved Jonny's life.
Fast forward to 2014, and Jonny, together with Rethink Mental Illness, launched a campaign so that Jonny could finally thank that stranger who set him on the path to recovery. More than 319 million people worldwide followed the search. ITV's breakfast shows picked up the story until the stranger, whose name is Neil Laybourn, was found and – in an emotional and touching moment – the pair re-united and have remained firm friends ever since.
As someone who has struggled with their mental health on and off throughout my life, I can appreciate the position Jonny found himself in. The fact that I have never come quite as close as Jonny is only due to the support I have received from my best friend and loving wife, Alex.
My final selection this week is a programme: The Push: Murder on the Cliff – Channel 4, 3 Mar 2024. In 2021, a pregnant young lawyer from Leeds plunged to her death from the top of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. Hours later, her husband was arrested for murder. Did she fall, or was she pushed?
Karma Nirvana, established in 1993 as the first specialist charity for victims and survivors, was deeply involved in this project, aiming to honour Fawziyah’s memory and raise awareness about the devastating impact of honour-based abuse.
Despite my traumatic childhood and experience as a Looked After Child, accounts of which I will no doubt share in future blogs, I am keenly aware of how ‘lucky’ I am. As a white, heterosexual post-graduate male living in the UK, I have never had to contend with the unimaginable pressure and abuse that stemmed from a conflicting set of values and beliefs, held not by one individual but a family and community.
To explore our ever-expanding catalogue of useful links, please visit Resource Library — Jingling Lane Training.
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