Torfaen Women's Aid, renamed in Welsh#
Cyfannol began in Torfaen in the 1970s as Torfaen Women's Aid. In 2015 it chose a Welsh name, Cyfannol, meaning holistic, to reflect supporting the whole person and joining up its services. It is now the largest affiliated Women's Aid organisation in Wales, covering Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen, and its site is in English and Welsh.
It specialises in supporting people, especially women and children, who have experienced domestic or sexual abuse, harm or violence. Its staff offer one-to-one and phone support, safety planning, safe accommodation, help with the family court and the police process, advocacy with social services and housing, help with money, benefits, education and work, access to legal advice, and counselling. It also offers specialist advocacy for people who have experienced abuse by a police officer.
Asking for support in Gwent#
Its support staff take calls in office hours (9.30am until 4.30pm, Monday to Friday), and the same number still gives urgent information and advice after they close. There is a form to request a call back from the team in your area. An adult referral form covers community one-to-one support, groups, the Horizon sexual violence counselling service and Horizon exploitation support, with a reply within 72 hours. If you need refuge or immediate crisis support, Cyfannol asks you to phone rather than use the form; children's referrals go by email.
Because services are commissioned council by council, Cyfannol does not run everything everywhere. Its support in your area directory lists local and national services by place, including specialist services run by and for particular communities, and says that every service listed for both men and women is LGBTQ+ inclusive.
Support for men#
Its dedicated community support for men runs in Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly, where the councils commission it alongside services for women. In Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen the equivalent services are commissioned for women only, but anyone who contacts Cyfannol gets initial safety advice and is pointed to help. Its refuge model includes self-contained dispersed properties for men, with or without children, and its sexual violence services are for people of all genders across Gwent.
Its advice on staying safe after leaving#
Cyfannol's Staying Safe page has a section on the longer term. If you have moved and do not want your former partner to find you, it suggests:
- telling your children's school, nursery or childminder, setting a password with them and giving them copies of any court orders;
- avoiding shared cards or joint accounts, whose statements could go to your former partner;
- making sure your address does not appear on court papers, on which a refuge will advise;
- registering to vote anonymously, so you keep your vote without your name and address appearing on the register.
It also suggests the Hollie Guard or Bright Sky apps, and its leaving page has a safety plan you can print and give to a friend.
Where a new name fits#
Cyfannol has no page on names, yet this list doubles as a checklist for changing one safely, because every record you update is another place an address or a new name could leak. In Wales, as in England, you may write your own deed poll from GOV.UK's template once you are 16 (Wales). Change the shared and joint things first, and see the electoral register and keeping your address off your records.
This page describes what Cyfannol Women's Aid publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Cyfannol has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
