Making an impact Rape Crisis Scotland Annual Report 2016-17
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How many people were in touch with our helpline?
WHat issues Have we been campaigning on?
How HAS our Prevention programme engaged with young people?
How HAve we been working to make positive changes for survivors?
what’s been happening at the Scottish Womens’ Rights Centre?
how has our advocacy project helped survivors?
What have rape crisis centres across scotland been doing?
How do we know our helpline support makes a difference? How did we support THe work of local centres? What's been happening on our social media this year?
WHat are we doing next year?
What kind of partnership working have we been doing?
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WHat About finance & funding?
how many people have received support from local centres?
INTRODUCTION Our campaign #ijustfroze was one of the highlights of this year, receiving widespread circulation and positive feedback, including some from survivors, with whom the truth of its messages seemed to resonate.
benefits, and will watch with interest the progress of the judicial review brought by the Child Poverty Action Group. We will continue to undertake and develop vital sexual violence prevention work with young people in schools and elsewhere in our efforts to raise awareness and effect the kind of attitudinal change which in the longer term offers the best prospect of the challenge to sexual violence that is so badly needed.
The issue of access to appropriate forensic services in particular became a recurrent theme, and steps announced to make improvements in this area were both badly needed and welcome. Much more, however, remains to be done, and with figures published in the course of the year showing yet again that perpetration of sexual crimes in Scotland continues at record levels it is unsurprising that the demands on both the helpline and on local centres continues to grow. In the coming year we will mark 10 years of the National Helpline: a vital resource for survivors and others affected by sexual violence which continues to develop and diversify in its efforts to meet the needs of individuals looking for support and information. Welcome news of increased Scottish Government funding for the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre announced in October also means that access to legal information and advice for women in Scotland will be increased. We will also continue to campaign alongside sister organisations against the iniquitous requirements of the rules attached to child tax credits which mean that women must disclose rape in order to receive
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HELPLINE How many people contacted our helpline? The RCS helpline saw a slight increase in demand in 2016-17. The total number of contacts has gone up from 4834 to 4850 – an increase of 0.33%. Email support comprised just over 17% of these contacts. The nature of these contacts was as follows: Support 4411 Information 275 Silent 152 Prank 8 Abusive 4
information on request. We also provide funding to Centres to enable follow on support to be available and accessible.
How do we ensure that our helpline is accessible? The RCS Helpline continues to offer various ways in which survivors can contact the service and seeks to promote access by addressing barriers. • A dedicated Deaf Access session continues to offer a Tuesday afternoon service with multiple means of accessing support including email, sms, online BSL interpreting and text relay. • Badged LGBTI access sessions are available every Monday and Thursday evening from 7pm – midnight. We currently have the silver LGBTI Chartermark and are proactively working towards the gold LGBTI chartermark. • RCS Helpline continues to provide free access to language interpreters where callers’ first language is not English and to provide translated
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How many survivors did our helpline support? Of the 4686 support and information contacts the helpline received in 2016-17, 4301 were directly from survivors of sexual violence (91.78%), with 25 from partners (0.53%), 94 from relatives (2%), 49 from friends (1.05%) and 180 from workers (3.84%). 37 (0.79%) were unknown. How do we know our helpline support is making a difference? The RCS Helpline records where possible how callers have indicated the call has assisted them • 76% of callers indicated feeling better at the end of the call • 88% of callers indicated being more aware of the options available to them • 34% of callers indicate feeling less isolated
HELPLINE How has our helpline support team been developing? The helpline support team during this period included ten part-time paid workers. We also undertook a new volunteer programme with eighteen initial trainees. We anticipate fifteen successful completers joining the existing team of ten volunteers. This will enable us to increase the capacity of the helpline team to three support workers per shift which will help us meet the increased demand we have observed over the past year. Quote from a long standing support worker: “I was working in retail and not learning anything new, and wanted to gain new experience and skills as well as feel I was contributing to something that mattered to me […] The training programme is invaluable in terms of the knowledge and skills it gives volunteers, and I always let people know what it did for me in terms of experience, options and outlook […] I feel very lucky to have found Rape Crisis Scotland when I was at a point in my life where I didn’t know how to move forward with the kind of work I felt passionate about. Working here has been one of the best experiences of my life.”
What kind of training have we delivered in the course of the year? Training was delivered on the Police Scotland SOLO training course, the new trauma input on the Detective Training and COPFS sexual offence training, with direct feedback from survivors via the helpline informing the content. This ensures survivors’ voices inform practice. Feedback from Police trainees has been positive: “Useful to learn how trauma can affect people’s memory/recall. I did not fully appreciate this. Definitely a better understanding from a victim’s point of view.” “Learned most from this input, really well taught and easy to understand.”
What kind of new resources have we produced? We produced new resources this year for partners, parents and friends, as well as for young people supporting other people who have experienced sexual violence.
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What survivors said
“I feel I have some hope now that there is support for me and that there is someone who will represent me and my interests.” [Speaking about Police Direct Referral]
“It was easier to express my feelings as it was difficult to say the words out loud as I got very emotional then struggled to speak.”
“She was very understanding and listened to me without forcing me to speak.”
“I wasn't going to call initially but I'm glad I did. It's been a great help and I'll call again.” (re. PDR)
“I found this line very helpful, the person I spoke with was very calm and softly spoken and immediately put my mind at ease.”
[Speaking about Police Direct Referral]
“I was reassured nothing was my fault which is so important to hear as one of the first things you do is blame yourself.”
[Speaking about email support]
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Local centres How did we support local centres across Scotland?
was produced by this partnership is now in its final draft.
RCS supported rape crisis services in Orkney and Shetland as they began the process of becoming autonomous rape crisis centres within the northern island communities they serve. Supporting their efforts to recruit shadow boards (with a view to securing Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation status in the near future), reflects our commitment towards these centres as locally driven, autonomous Centres, and members of Rape Crisis Scotland.
We held our annual consultation with member centres on their learning and development needs, and continued to circulate a monthly newsletter to help keep centres updated on a range of issues and developments on areas including strategic & legal, advocacy, sexual violence prevention, the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre, LGBTI issues, disability, and mental health.
Rape Crisis Scotland held a range of events for centres in the course of the year, including a Shared Vision Day, a training day on the Comprehensive Resource Model and another specifically for Board members on aspects of governance. We also ran workshops looking at Board recruitment, diversity, and managing dynamics and relationships. A conference on Feminist Governance was held jointly with our partners at Scottish Women’s Aid, the Centre for Research on Families & Relationships at Edinburgh University and the Voluntary Action Fund during March. The Feminist Trustee Conference was the very first of its kind in Scotland and celebrated feminist values and good governance in feminist organisations delivering services. The Feminist Governance toolkit for Trustees of Rape Crisis Services in Scotland which
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Partnership working What kind of partnership work have we been doing?
Partnership work with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office: Further to our previous work in developing a specific support resource for those raped abroad, and after lengthy discussions, the helpline has signed off an information sharing agreement with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, alongside Rape Crisis England & Wales and Nexus in Northern Ireland. This will ensure British citizens who experience sexual violence overseas have access to the support they need, both whilst overseas and on return.
RCS continues to work in partnership with a range of key partners including: • Representation on the Joint Strategic Board on Violence Against Women • Involvement in the justice, prevention and capability and capacity working groups which report to the Joint Strategic Board • Contributing to Crown Office sexual offences training course
Discussions are ongoing to ensure embassy and consular staff have access to appropriate support and training to put this into effective practice, that the guidance issued is fit for purpose and that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office understand Scotland’s differing legal and health context. A communications strategy is being discussed to maximise awareness of this, which Rape Crisis Scotland will promote in Scotland.
• Cross party working group on Violence Against Women • Cross party working group on Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse • Delivering training on the Police Scotland SOLO training course • Involvement in the Crown Office Expert Group on Sexual Offences •
Partnership work with the Scottish Football Association: A partnership agreement has also been agreed with the Scottish Football Association to ensure that those affected by abuse in football have access to support with a signposting/referral agreement. The final draft of the leaflet is with designers and this protocol will be publicised soon.
Scottish National Stalking Group
• Scottish Government Taskforce on healthcare and forensic medical services for people who have experienced rape and sexual assault.
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working for change Where have we been campaigning for change? Criminal justice research & feedback from survivors There is a clear need to engage with rape complainers to capture their experience of the criminal justice process. RCS has worked with Police Scotland to develop a proposal for research into complainers experience of the justice process, and well as working with the Crown Office to develop a formal feedback process to systemically collect feedback about sexual offence complainers’ experiences. Impact of floating trial diets We have seen a huge increase in the numbers of rape and sexual offence cases being allocated to floating trial diets. This has resulted significant uncertainty for survivors about when their case is likely to go ahead, and is causing huge distress to survivors we are working with. Giving evidence in a trial of this nature can be a very daunting prospect. Our experience is that rape complainers are building themselves up to give evidence, only to get a call the night before saying the trial isn’t going ahead. This can be repeated many times, and often someone is then given a new trial date for months into the future. We met with Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service to raise our concerns about this issue, and have also raised with the Scottish Government. We do not consider that the current process in any way enables rape complainers to give
their best evidence. Ultimately, we consider that rape complainers’ evidence and cross examination should be pre-recorded, to avoid them having to go to the court at all. Forensics HMICS released a report into the provision of forensic services in Scotland following a sexual offence which identified significant shortcomings in the current provision. New draft standards for forensic and health services following a sexual offence were released for consultation. The Scottish Government announced the establishment of a taskforce improve responses to people who have been raped or sexually assaulted, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer. Rape Crisis Scotland is represented on the taskforce, and we also established a reference group for CMO task force, which brings together representatives a range of organisations representing different communities across Scotland. The purpose of the reference group is to ensure that changes to how forensic and health services are delivered are directly informed by the needs of survivors. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice visited Orkney and Shetland in August 2017 to announce additional funding to develop advisory services on the islands as part of the National Advocacy Project, and funding to develop locally based forensic services.
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working for change Equally Safe We submitted a response to the Scottish Government's consultation on the draft delivery plan for Equally Safe. Our response highlighted the need for more focus on sexual violence, and the need to address the issue of consent within the section on children and young people developing healthy relationships.
National advocacy Project The National Advocacy Project was established by Rape Crisis Scotland in February 2016. It provides support and advocacy to survivors who are engaged, or considering engaging, with the criminal justice system following a sexual offence. Between its launch in February 2016 and July 2017, the project has supported over 1,000 people. As well as advocating on behalf of individual survivors, the project is able to identify common issues facing survivors of sexual offences and raise these at a strategic level with relevant agencies. Through the project, Rape Crisis Scotland organised 5 focus groups with complainers with the Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland, as part of
National Advocacy Project meeting their review of the prosecution of sexual offences. The feedback from survivors who participated in these meetings has been very positive, and should ensure that the inspection is directly informed by the voices of survivors. The project is being externally evaluated by the University of Glasgow, and the evaluation report will be published later this year.
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Prevention How many young people did our Prevention programme reach? The national prevention programme – steadily growing and raising young people’s voices. The programme entered its 4th year and continued to increase its reach, with Rape Crisis Centre Glasgow, RASAC Perth and Kinross and Forth Valley Rape Crisis now participating. Prevention workers delivered programmes to 13,466 young people in 114 schools, and supported over 150 to get involved through facilitating programmes, taking part in Reclaim the Night marches, training teachers, blogging, and creating zines and films exploring feminism and challenging sexism, racism and Islamophobia.
Student training session “I think pupils are much more aware of the issues covered and there were a lot of discussions between them during the workshops. I suspect that the boys in particular could be more sympathetic towards their partners' feelings in the future.”
What do young people think of the programme? “They really used words and situations that relate to us. Teachers don’t use words that we use in talk but the lady did say things that relate to us.” “Very honest and open, it's important people our age do not feel in the dark about these issues.” And teachers? 96% of teachers agreed/strongly agreed that it was beneficial to have an outside agency deliver on these issues. One teacher commented:
Linking young people with Equally Safe We mounted a successful application to Equally Safe to facilitate children and young people’s participation in developing the strategy’s implementation plan, led by University of Edinburgh with partners Barnardos, Scottish Women’s Aid, Scottish Youth Parliament and support from Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland. This grant will enable a programme of consultation with young survivors and those involved in challenging gender inequality with the aim that the implementation plan reflects their views and needs.
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Prevention Supporting schools We continued to develop our whole school approach model in partnership with Zero Tolerance and the University of Glasgow Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU).
STAMP Summer School
Reclaim The Night preparation at Perth & Kinross The next step is to pilot it, so we sought funding for a coordinator and supported SPHSU to prepare their application to National Institute of Health Research to evaluate it. Our ultimate aim is to make a significant contribution to schools’ capacity and capability to promote gender equality and prevent and respond effectively to GBV.
Supporting universities As part of joint work with University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University to tackle sexual violence, we delivered a training programme to student trainers who have now delivered workshops to 450 of their peers. Students were selected on the basis of sharing our values and approach, and were supported through ongoing training and development sessions. Their comments on the value of the initiative: ‘It facilitates change from the ground up’ ‘People understanding low-level, everyday achievable ways to intervene and challenge damaging views.’
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campaigning What have we been campaigning on? In March we launched a new campaign #ijustfroze, which was funded by the Scottish Government. #ijustfroze aims to challenge and change common misconceptions about reactions to rape. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to react to rape, but assumptions that survivors will or can be expected to behave in a certain way can lead to judgmental attitudes which prevent survivors from disclosing what has happened or coming forward to seek the support that can help them or the justice to which they are entitled. ‘I Just Froze’ #ijustfroze comprises two short animations plus supporting materials (briefing paper and postcards) and is primarily a social media campaign which has been and continues to be shared across multiple platforms. The timing of the launch of #ijustfroze was intended to give the messages several weeks to ‘bed in’ prior to the introduction of new legislation introducing judicial directions around responses to rape and delayed disclosure in some sexual offence cases the following month.
us implement the campaign. As the budget was relatively low, we were dependent on other agencies and individuals sharing the videos, and promoting them locally. This worked well, e.g. the videos were screened in the local cinema in Orkney and also in Dumfries and Galloway. What kind of a response has our campaigning work had? #ijustfroze received considerable support from survivors of sexual violence, seven of whom offered to tell their stories in order to support it by reinforcing the truth of its messages. As soon as it was launched we received many very positive messages of support for the campaign – both via email and in comments beneath the posts. We gained over 200 followers on Twitter in the week following the campaign, and in the same week, the animations were viewed over 117,000 times on Facebook (with 1929 shares), and the tweets in which they were initially circulated on Twitter (at pic.twitter.com/47EA7EqmO3 and pic.twitter.com/ Az96PrOu6g) were retweeted 2589 times (The First Minister and JK Rowling were among those who did so) & liked 2938 times. They also reached a further audience on Vimeo, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, Kiltr and via the campaign web page.
A partnership approach We worked closely with Police Scotland in developing our messaging for this campaign, and also consulted with the Crown Office, and the ‘I Just Froze’ received considerable media coverage, Scottish Government to ensure that we were getting both across the mainstream media (with articles the message right. in several newspapers and Elle magazine among others) and also across a range of social media Stakeholders played a crucial role in helping platforms.
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campaigning
‘Thank you, this is much needed. Survivors need reassuring that freezing is never something to feel guilty about.’
#ijustfroze ‘a fantastic message to bust those myths and deal with facts. Refreshing stuff thank you.’
‘congrats on timely message about rape culture #Ijustfroze - there is no wrong way to react to someone else's choice to hurt u.’
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Scottish Women’s rights Centre How has the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre been developing?
violence to help fill the gaps between women’s nonlegal needs and access to justice. The SWRC offer a helpline and bi-weekly surgeries in Glasgow and Hamilton. Due to popular demand in February 2017 we launched another helpline on a Friday, which means there are now three a week.
The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre celebrated its first anniversary by hosting a seminar highlighting issues identified in the course of its first year in operation. We were delighted that the Lord Advocate James Wolffe was able to join us as a keynote speaker at this event. There continues to be a gap in Scotland between women with experience of violence or abuse, and access to justice. The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre is a unique legal project that exists because of – and works to try and bridge – this gap. We provide free legal information, advice, representation and advocacy to support women to access justice. The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre model is innovative and unlike any other that exists in Scotland. Very few of us would separate our complex experiences into civil and criminal law, or know how to navigate these systems. That’s why in January 2017 we developed an Advocacy role to compliment the work of the solicitor. She now works with women with experience of gender based
The numbers: • 7 new volunteers from University of Strathclyde Law Clinic joined the existing volunteers, giving us invaluable support to help women • We produced 2 new legal guides on Stopping Harassment and Getting Legal Representation • 1 new Twitter account (@SWRC_) • The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre received 298 helpline calls and took on 58 women for representation News: We’re developing an app! Working with Media Coop and with the advice and input from lots of agencies including Police Scotland and the Crown Office we’re creating an incident reporting app that will support victims of stalking and help with the investigation and prosecution of these cases. Watch this space…
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Scottish Women’s rights Centre *Forced Marriage, Trafficking & Honour Based Violence
Contact with the Scottish Women's Rights Centre related to:
**Stalking & Harassment
Specific issues discussed were: A. Child contact, residence or maintenance B. Protective Orders C. Victims’ rights in the Criminal Justice process D. Reporting crime E. Dissolution of relationship F. Other = immigration & asylum, CIC and other restitution, housing, employment, debt etc.
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Communication & Events We published 18 News stories and 4 blogposts in the course of the year, and continued to maintain a vibrant presence across a range of social media platforms. Social media (in particular Twitter and Facebook) were key to the success of our #ijustfroze campaign, and the level of engagement around this on the RCS platforms was reflected in the analytics, which were the highest we have ever seen [link to campaigning section]. We published 351 tweets in the course of the year, and gained 1169 new Twitter followers. We established a presence on Instagram for the first time, where we quickly gained a following there and have now over 200 followers. Enquiries In addition to general administration calls and calls to the helpline, we responded to 788 enquiries, 163 of which were media enquiries and 251 of which were responses to requests for information. This represented a 12% increase on 2015-16. Events We gave 10 presentations and did 5 stalls in the course of the year at a range of events including a seminar on restorative justice, Equalities & Choices college events, a ‘Porn in the mainstream’ seminar and others.
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Looking ahead We will support our newest rape crisis services in Orkney and Shetland to become independent rape crisis centres, with locally based governance structures.
In October 2017 we will mark the 10th anniversary of the Rape Crisis Scotland National Helpline. Next year we will begin the pilot of a whole school approach to prevention of gender-based violence (GBV), which supports schools to promote gender equality and tackle violence through a series of joined-up measures, including a staff and student action group, education, teacher training and student leadership. The RCS whole school coordinator will work closely with the schools to implement the measures, developing the model as she goes to ensure it’s working effectively. The project is steered in partnership with Zero Tolerance, and our partners at the University of Glasgow will evaluate the model in 2019 (subject to funding) with the aim of demonstrating its effectiveness and building support to implement it more widely. Rape Crisis Scotland will continue to work with partners in health and justice to improve forensic and health responses immediately following a rape or sexual assault. We will develop a project focusing on a rights based approach to the issue of complainers’ medical or sensitive records being accessed as part of criminal prosecutions.
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finance & funding Statement of Financial Activities For the Year Ended 31 March 2017 2017 £ 252,610
Income and endowments from Donations and legacies* Charitable activities Sexual violence support** Investment income Total incoming resources
* Core Funding Donations ** National Helpline
244,000 8,610 260,000
Big Lottery Fund – (3rd Sector Early Intervention)
320,000
Scottish Government – (Advocacy project)
601,679
1,490,730 520 1,743,860
Expenditure on Charitable activities Sexual violence support 1,730,700 Total resources expended 1,730,700 Net income 13,160 Other recognised gains/(losses) Actuarial gains/ losses on defined benefit schemes (3,066) Net surplus
10,094
Fund Balances as at 1 April 2016 Fund Balances as at 31 March 2017
88,475 98,569
Please contact us if you would like a copy of our audited accounts
Scottish Government – (Forth Valley RCC development)
95,531
Scottish Government – (Orkney RC Centre)
45,000
Scottish Government – (Shetland RC Centre)
45,000
Scottish Government – (Prevention Post)
38,000
Scottish Government – Judicial Directions Campaign
30,000
Scottish Women’s Rights Centre
54,127
National Women’s Council of Ireland ESHTE Funding 1,393
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STATIstics from centres Clients by Centre Total clients: 4,108
Client Type
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STATIstics from centres Appointments Total appointments: 14,714
Group Support - no. of sessions attended: 1073 Call Type Total calls: 18,246
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STATIstics from centres Survivor age*
*(where known)
Relationship of Abuser
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STATIstics from centres Gender of Abuser*
*(where known)
Nature of Abuse*
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STATIstics from centres Time elapsed since abuse*
*(where known)
Location of Abuse*
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STATIstics from centres Duration of Abuse*
*(where known)
Survivor’s age at start of abuse*
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STATIstics from centres Additional violence involved*
Effects of Abuse*
*(where known)
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STATIstics from centres
Perception of police response*
*(where known)
Reporting to the Police
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Local centres Aberdeen It’s been a really busy year. There have been a number of changes within our staff team but we’ve now had our core team in place since October. We recruited a Volunteer Coordinator in January, and have had two cohorts of volunteer support workers going through recruitment and training so we now have 19 volunteers, which means we’re able to reach out further into Aberdeenshire. Our Prevention Worker, who came into post in October has made huge steps in connecting with academies in our area, and was instrumental to the launch of the ‘Ask For Angela’ campaign in Aberdeen City. We had quite a number of events during the 16 Days of Action, both for survivors and for volunteers as well as ones undertaken with local partner organisations. We’ve also been part of ‘Celebrate Aberdeen’ which celebrates volunteering within Aberdeen City last summer. We also held a couple of events of our own to thank our volunteers for their commitment to the service.
Argyll & Bute This year we have seen increasing demand for our services and we have been focusing on securing funding to allow us to increase capacity which we have achieved with funding for 3 new part time workers. Survivors in Argyll and Bute are already isolated by the vast rural/remote/island areas in which they live and workers located in their local areas means they can now access face to face support. Our Partnership Group Work, aimed at survivors of sexual abuse who have additional complex needs continues to grow and our Tessa Youth Project which facilitates mainstream prevention workshops and support to young people in schools and TESSA LD which provides this on a one to one basis with young people who have learning disabilities, continues to flourish. Argyll & Bute Argyll & Bute Rape Crisis Centre 53 Hillfoot Street, Dunoon, PA23 7DR Helpline 0800 121 46 85 Office: 01369 700 800 Email: info@ab-rc.org.uk Email: support@ab-rc.org.uk Web: www.ab-rc.org.uk or visit www.tessaproject.co.uk
Aberdeen Rape Crisis Grampian 112 Crown Street Aberdeen AB11 6HJ Office: 01224 590932 Email: info@rapecrisisgrampian.co.uk Web: http://www.rapecrisisgrampian.co.uk/
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Local centres Edinburgh We supported 448 service users in the course of the year, and continued to provide a range of trauma-informed specialist services: emotional and advocacy support as well as information provision both face to face, over the phone & by email, and group sessions too. We moved premises in March, and the building we are now in has improved access for disabled people. One of the big highlights of the year was the publication of ‘A Woman’s Story’ in 2016, and we met with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Michael Matheson, who referenced the power and significance of this this publicly on several occasions. He spoke at our AGM event in November 2016, at which a new policy initiative was announced with regard to improving forensic provision for survivors. In terms of our prevention service, in addition to working in a number of schools in Edinburgh we also worked in partnership with Amina and Saheliya to deliver a Creative Participation project with young BME women. This culminated in the short film ‘Hopscotch’ which highlights young BME women’s experiences of sexism and street harassment as well as racial harassment, and the intersections between these. During the year we began training 6 new volunteer support workers and we also upgraded our website.’
East Ayrshire The Centre has made a lot of progress since we moved into our new premises last year. Some positive changes include: gaining 4 new Board members, 2 new workers, and 8 volunteers; increasing our referrals; establishing a fund-raising group; refurbishing the building and changing our name to ‘The STAR Centre’ (Surviving, Thriving and Recovery).
East Ayrshire The STAR Centre Previously Rape Counselling & Resource Centre P.O.Box 23 Kilmarnock KA1 1DP Helpline: 01563 541 769 Office: 01563 544 686 Email: admin@starcentreayrshire.org
Edinburgh Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre 17 Claremont Cres, Edinburgh EH7 4HX Support service: 0131 556 9437 Business: 0131 557 6737 Email: support@ercc.scot (Support enquiries) Email: info@ercc.scot (General email enquiries) Web: www.ercc.scot
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Local centres Dumfries & Galloway The centre has been undergoing a period of change over the past year. We now have an Operational Manager who came into post at the beginning of March; she is developing many new links with partners locally and we have formed a number of new relationships with other agencies as a result of this and are consequently able to signpost survivors to a wider range appropriate sources of information and support to meet their needs. We have an interim Director in post since the previous incumbent left, and are planning a move to new premises early in the next financial year to allow great space and scope for our work. We are starting to see quite a substantial increase in referrals. Dumfries & Galloway South West Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Centre 1a Irving Street Dumfries DG1 1EL Helpline: 01387 253 113 (Dumfries) Email: admin@rape-crisis.org.uk Web: www.rape-crisis.co.uk
Dundee We were successful in securing funding from Comic Relief for a Senior Young People’s Support Worker. She set up DAYS (Dundee and Angus Young Survivors Project), which emerged from the increase in demand for support that followed the introduction of the prevention post and is now already oversubscribed. DAYS supports boys and girls & young men & women from 11 to 18. We did some work with Police Scotland Youth Volunteers through our Prevention project, and attended CEPOL training at the European Police Training Centre. Two PSYV from Dundee delivered a workshop on young people’s experience of sexting at the National Working Group Conference in Nottingham. We had our first ever national conference on commercial sexual exploitation, with speakers talking about the developments for example in Ireland and Sweden, possible models for Scotland, and how can we better support women involved. Dundee Women’s Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre Dundee & Angus 2 Dudhope Street, Dundee DD1 1JU Helpline: 0300 365 2001 (Mon, Wed, Fri 10am-12pm) Office: 01382 205 556 Email: info@wrasac.org.uk Email (Support): support@wrasac.org.uk Web: www.wrasac.org.uk
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Local centres Fife The biggest thing for us this year was relocating to a new building. It’s more central, but also discreetly located and it’s been much better having more space. The rise in our waiting lists has been another significant development this year – we’re not sure if this is related to our advocacy work or if it’s happened for other reasons. We secured funding from Comic Relief for a Volunteer Coordinator for two years through their core fund (the first time they have made this available) – there were over 1500 applicants only 10 of which were successful in Scotland. In addition to giving us a Volunteer Coordinator this development also allowed us to gain additional admin hours, which has been a massive help. Fife Fife Rape & Sexual Assault Centre 38/40 High St, Kirkcaldy KY1 1LU Office: 01592 642 336 Email: info@frasac.org.uk Web: www.frasac.org.uk
Forth Valley Forth Valley Rape Crisis is now fully registered and established as an autonomous organisation. Our biggest achievement this year has been the opening of the centre, so that survivors can now use our services. Now we have lots of referrals, and the centre’s really busy every day. Reclaim the Night in December was a big highlight, and a great way for survivors to get involved in campaigning and activism. We’ve now got our garden to a point where we can use it with survivors; volunteers helped us to do that. We’ve also started running group work programmes about things like sleep and self-care. Getting to that stage where it’s not just one to one face to face support means our services are actually growing more diverse. Forth Valley Forth Valley Rape Crisis Centre 22 Millar Place Stirling FK8 1XD Telephone Support: 08088 01 03 02 (6pm midnight daily) Office: 01786 439 244 Email: contact@forthvalleyrapecrisis.org.uk Web: www.forthvalleyrapecrisis.org.uk
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Local centres Glasgow This has been the busiest year we’ve ever had. We received a grant from the Big Lottery and expanded our support service. We’re also part of the national projects for advocacy and prevention and have been heavily involved in both of those areas. We also decided to move premises to accommodate the expansion of our services. 2016 was our 40th anniversary, a very significant milestone for us. We had a big fundraising initiative which was launched by some of our patrons, which was really successful as we raised about £25,000.
Glasgow Glasgow Rape Crisis Centre 5th Floor, 30 Bell Street, Glasgow G1 1LG Helpline: 08088 00 00 14 Office: 0141 552 3201 Email: info@rapecrisiscentre-glasgow.co.uk Support: support@rapecrisiscentre-glasgow. co.uk Web: www.rapecrisiscentre-glasgow.co.uk
Highland At RASASH we’ve been working on a project to develop a training pack to raise awareness of sexual abuse and exploitation of people with learning disabilities. We’ve spent some time this year delivering training to local partners on how to work with people who’ve experienced sexual violence and have also done awareness-raising with psychology services and guided self-help workers in the area, and gave specialist training on trauma to police SOLOs. Support work in general is going very well and we’re getting a lot of good feedback. We’ve introduced crisis sessions and in August will be introducing groupwork for survivors on our waiting list. Despite being fortunate enough to receive support service funding from the National Lottery, Foundation Scotland and the Rape Crisis Specific Fund, our waiting list equates to something like 85% of our weekly support capacity, and is currently just short of six months. We have also already outgrown our premises after only 2 years, and are currently looking for somewhere new. Scottish Highlands Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland (RASASH) Support line: 03330 066909 Office: 01463 257657 Email (Office): info@rasash.org.uk Email (Support): support@rasash.org.uk
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Local centres Lanarkshire Lots of great work has been happening at LRCC over the past year and we are particularly proud of: • The funding work that has been ongoing and how core and project funding were secured with help from across the board • The STAMP Project has been funded by Young Start for another 2 years • The partnership work that has been developing with local VAW groups has become an integral part of the community • There has been a 12% increase in new referrals showing evidence of need for our services • Skill development for staff and volunteers with training around trauma, FGM and forced marriage • Support services have been developed further and new structures and support methods introduced, while the National Advocacy Project is helping to develop confidence in service users reporting sexual crimes, and we have seen more convictions as a result of this • We have a 25% increase in demand for helpline support from previous year
Orkney Our achievements this year included a commitment from NHS Orkney that local forensic examinations will become available to adult survivors. We have recruited a shadow board, part time prevention & advocacy workers and moved to our own independent premises. Engagement with adult survivors of CSA has produced invaluable feedback that shaped the environment we created at our new centre.
Orkney Orkney Rape Crisis 4 Gunn’s Close Kirkwall KW15 1DU Office: 01856872298 Email: contact@orkneyrapecrisis.scot Web: https://www.orkneyrapecrisis.scot
Lanarkshire Lanarkshire Rape Crisis Centre Brandon House Business Centre, 23-25 Brandon Street, Hamilton ML3 6DA Helpline: 01698 527 003 Office: 01698 527 006 Email: info@lanrcc.org.uk Web: www.lanrcc.org.uk
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Local centres Perth The first year of our Young People & Families Project was very busy. We had 85 young survivors (who had 143 experiences of sexual violence) in Year 1 of this, 9% of them were male. Our first young people’s support group was very productive, and the group really bonded well. Our Youth Initiative is now in three secondary schools in Perth & Kinross, working with over 4000 young people through classroom-based sessions and in the community. Our Youth Ambassador Programme has 10 new recruits and has been part of a big European Project on how professionals and education can promote positive relationships & positive identities in young people. Two of our Youth Ambassadors presented the recommendations that came out of this at an event in Paris. We piloted a drop-in for survivors and plan to review this. We continued our work around commercial sexual exploitation and have been doing a weekly drop-in at OWL (the Offending Women’s Learning service) which has been going really well. Perth & Kinross Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre Perth & Kinross (RASAC P&K) 18 King Street, Perth PH2 8JA Helpline: 01738 630 965 Office: 01738 626 290 Email: info@rasacpk.org.uk Support: rasacpk@gmail.com Web: www.rasacpk.org.uk
Scottish Borders It's been another really busy year for us - again we've seen an increase in referrals, particularly in young people accessing the service and we know this is as a direct result of the prevention work that we're doing in schools. We have quite an established relationship with some of the schools that we're in and the referrals are much higher from those schools than from the ones we've not been working in for as long. This year we did manage to reach all 9 high schools in the Borders and we reached just under 1500 young people. Our prevention work has been a huge achievement. Our Advocacy and Support project has also far exceeded any of our expectations and has been used by many survivors who are really finding that an extremely valuable service. We had a Reclaim The Night march during November on International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women in Galashiels to mark the start of the 16 Days of Action in the Borders which was great - the Samba Sisters joined us this year and led the march which was fantastic. Scottish Borders Rape Crisis Centre 1A Wilderhaugh, Galashiels, TD1 1PW Office: 01896 661070 Email (office): info@sbrcc.org.uk Email (support): support@sbrcc.org.uk Web: www.scottishbordersrapecrisis.org.uk
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Local centres Shetland It's been an incredibly busy first year of operation for Shetland Rape Crisis. Rape crisis provision here has really helped to raise awareness of sexual violence and its impact, and local survivors and their friends and families now know there is somewhere they can go to get support and information. Thanks to the media coverage highlighting a complete absence of forensics provision in the area, (which meant survivors having to travel to Aberdeen) a forensics unit in Shetland is now well on the way becoming a reality. Campaigning against (and discussion around) the Family Cap and 'rape clause' also helped to inform people locally about the reality many survivors face. Shetland Rape Crisis has really benefitted from working with Rape Crisis Scotland and Orkney Rape Crisis and being able to draw on their expertise and support has been invaluable.
Shetland Shetland Rape Crisis Market House, 14 Market Street Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0JP Office: 01595745078 Email: contact@shetlandrapecrisis.scot Web: www.shetlandrapecrisis.scot
Western Isles Western Isles Rape Crisis Centre has been busy with outreach group work throughout the Western Isles. We have been trying to promote our services (in particular targeting the health sector) in order to ensure that as wide a possible range of relevant agencies are aware of these, and also to further expand support places suitable for our outreach work. We have established new working relationships with various professional and third sector agencies to promote services for survivors of adult childhood sexual abuse. Our Prevention Worker left her position to take up other employment, and this role will now be shared from the mainland alongside other islands where there was previously no service. We continue to look for suitable premises in which to continue our work in a comfortable safe warm discreet environment. Our Advocacy and support service has been very well received by women on the island who are looking or engaging in the criminal justice system. Western Isles P O Box 9964 Stornoway HS1 9AN Helpline & Office: 01851 709 965 Email: info@wircc.org.uk Web: www.wircc.org.uk
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Rape Crisis Scotland would like to thank everyone who has supported our work during the past year. We are grateful to the Scottish Government for their continued financial support, as well as to the many individuals who have made incredible fundraising efforts on our behalf.
Rape Crisis Scotland Tara House, 46 Bath Street Glasgow G2 1HG Office tel: 0141 331 4180 Office fax & minicom: 0141 332 2168 E: info@rapecrisisscotland.org.uk Web: www.rapecrisissotland.org.uk
Rape Crisis Scotland is a charitable company limited by guarantee. Registered in Scotland No 258568 Recognised by the Inland Revenue as a Scottish Charity No SC025642
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