Fifty years in Edinburgh#
Edinburgh Women's Aid (EWA) marked fifty years in 2023, and says more than 2,000 women contact it each year. Around fifty women staff provide practical and emotional support by phone, at its office, in the community and in refuge. Its services run from the first thought of leaving to recovery: crisis support, refuge, community-based key workers, help for women with mental health or substance use needs, peer groups, a ten-week programme for mothers and children's services, and Works 4 Women, an employability programme with Shakti Women's Aid.
EWA supports women living in the City of Edinburgh, or whose court case is at Edinburgh Sheriff Court; it says its duty and court services include trans women. For other parts of Scotland it points to Scottish Women's Aid's finder, and men to services such as FearFree and ASSIST.
Phone, email or drop in#
The support line is open on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10am to 3pm, and on Tuesday until 7pm. If it is closed or busy, a 24-hour answer machine takes your name and a safe time to ring back; the 24-hour Scottish Domestic Abuse Helpline is there too. If phoning is not safe, email the duty team and say when it is safe to reply. You can also walk into its Stockbridge office without an appointment during drop-in hours; it is on the ground floor and wheelchair accessible.
Its FAQs suggest a friend's device, a cheap spare phone or a work email if you think your own is monitored, and say staff note whether your number and email are safe to use. Non-English speakers are supported through a telephone interpreter, and the team has a Polish-speaking worker. Professionals refer with the woman's consent, using its referral forms.
Refuge spaces across the city#
EWA has 29 refuge spaces across Edinburgh, 27 of them for women with children. Some are shared houses where each woman has her own lockable bedroom; others are flats in a building with staff on site day and night. Every address is kept secret, and if staying in the city is not safe, EWA will look for a refuge for you in another part of the UK.
Court support and free legal advice#
EDDACS supports women whose partners or former partners are prosecuted at the Edinburgh Domestic Abuse Court. It explains the process, prepares reports for hearings about risk and bail conditions, asks for special measures such as giving evidence remotely, and refers to MARAC where the risk is high.
For civil matters, the Legal Services Project, run with Scottish Women's Aid and a family law firm, gives women it supports immediate, free legal advice without first setting up appointments or assessing legal aid. It covers separation, divorce, parental responsibilities and rights, where children live, contact, and dividing property and money. EWA's page on the law explains Scottish protective orders: exclusion orders, interdicts and non-harassment orders.
Scotland's routes to a new name#
EWA publishes nothing on names. Scotland has a route England lacks. Where a birth or adoption was registered in Scotland, National Records of Scotland will note the change on your birth entry, and later certificates print both names. Citizens Advice Scotland cautions that this entry sits on a register open to the public, which may be the wrong choice after abuse. Two private alternatives exist: a deed poll, drafted for free from GOV.UK's text, and a statutory declaration; neither is lodged anywhere. Our Scotland guide sets them side by side, and questions about children belong with the Legal Services Project.
This page describes what Edinburgh Women's Aid publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. EWA has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
