Dope Soul Village

Help Build the Shelters I Needed My name is Sam, and I am the founder of Dope Soul Village and Finally Free CIC. Ten months ago, I asked for help to build something I believe desperately needs to exist: safe, long-term homes for women and children fleeing domestic abuse. Then I went quiet. Not because the mission changed, and not because I gave up. The reality is that life got in the way. Over the last ten months, I have been rebuilding my life after domestic abuse, navigating family court proceedings, raising three children as a single mother, growing a business from scratch, and preparing for a complete fresh start. Like many women who have survived abuse, I found myself spending so much time surviving that I had very little energy left to ask for help. But while I stopped talking about the vision, I never stopped working towards it. The truth is that I know exactly what it feels like to need support and discover that the system doesn't work the way people think it does. Too many women are forced to choose between homelessness and abuse. Too many are offered temporary accommodation with strict time limits and unrealistic expectations. Too many are told they cannot bring their pets, even though we know that fear for a beloved animal is one of the reasons many women delay leaving dangerous situations. That is why I created Finally Free CIC. My goal is to build Shelters & Safe homes; places where women and children can arrive, breathe, heal and rebuild their lives without the constant fear of what happens when their allotted time runs out. These will not be emergency shelters designed to move women on as quickly as possible. They will be genuine homes where women can stay for as long as they need while they recover from trauma, rebuild their confidence, find employment, secure permanent housing and create a future free from abuse. Each Village will be named after a victim of domestic abuse. Their names deserve to be remembered, not as statistics, but as part of a legacy that creates safety and hope for other women and children. To open our first Shelter for women and children, we need approximately £150,000. This would allow us to secure and prepare a property, furnish it, implement security measures, cover legal and operational costs, and provide the support services needed to help families rebuild their lives. To create a Village that can also accommodate pets, the cost rises to approximately £250,000. I believe passionately that no woman should ever have to choose between her own safety and the safety of a pet she loves. For many survivors, that animal is family, and we know that abusers frequently use pets as a tool of control. Creating accommodation that welcomes women, children and pets would allow us to remove yet another barrier that prevents women from leaving. I won't pretend this is a small goal. It isn't. I'm not backed by a celebrity, a major charity, or a wealthy organisation. I'm a survivor, a mother, and a woman with a vision that refuses to go away. I've spent years researching, planning, learning and laying the groundwork for this project because I genuinely believe we can do better than the system currently does. If you've followed my journey, supported Dope Soul Village, shared my content, or simply believed in what I'm trying to build, I'm asking for your help today. Whether you donate £1 or £1,000, share this fundraiser with your friends, volunteer your skills, or simply help spread the word, every contribution moves us closer to opening the doors of the first Village. This project is for the woman sleeping in her car because the shelter won't take her dog. It's for the mother desperately trying to protect her children while navigating systems that seem designed to make everything harder. It's for every survivor who has ever been told there are no spaces available, no funding available, or that they'll have to wait. I refuse to believe that is the best we can do. The last ten months have taught me many things, but the biggest lesson has been that meaningful change rarely comes from large organisations. More often, it starts with ordinary people who decide that something isn't good enough and refuse to accept it. This is my refusal to accept it. If you'd like to help build the shelters I wish had existed when I needed them most, I would be incredibly grateful for your support. Thank you for reading, thank you for believing in the vision, and thank you for helping me prove that even the biggest ideas have to start somewhere. Sam Taylor Founder, Dope Soul Village Founder, Finally Free CIC