Support for Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault
Sexual Assault Referral Centres UK
If you have been a victim of rape or sexual assault in many areas of England and Wales you can go to a Sexual Assault Referral Centre or SARC. Sexual Assault Referral Centres or SARC’s are specialist services for people who have been raped or sexually assaulted. At SARC’s specially trained staff will examine you, preserve all the evidence, offer you counselling and support, and support you to decide if you want to report to the police. You can have all these services even if you choose to have no police involvement.
You can find your nearest SARC by going to the NHS choices website and typing your postcode into the search engine at: https://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Rape-and-sexual-assault-referral-centres/LocationSearch/364 or calling the NHS 111 non-emergency service.
Some areas in Scotland have SARC provision, in other areas the support provided by SARC’s is provided by other services. Go to https://www.mygov.scot/rape-assault/support-for-female-victims/ or https://www.mygov.scot/rape-assault/support-for-male-victims/
The Rowan http://therowan.net/ is the SARC for Northern Ireland, they can be contacted on their 24 hour advice and information line: 0800 389 4424.
Other services
Rape Crisis
Rape Crisis England and Wales https://rapecrisis.org.uk/ has a free phone help line open daily 0808 802 9999 and on their website has information about how to get help if you’ve experienced rape or any kind of sexual violence, including the details of local support services.
Rape Crisis Scotland https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/ has a free phone help line open daily 08088 010302 and on their website has information about how to get help if you’ve experienced rape or any kind of sexual violence, including details of local support services.
Rape Crisis also provides information about specialist support for men: https://rapecrisis.org.uk/supportformenboys.php
The Survivors Trust website also has information about SARC’s and other support services for people of all genders: http://thesurvivorstrust.org/sarc/
Republic of Ireland
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) http://www.drcc.ie/ provides a wide range of services including a national helpline 1800 77 8888 email COUNSELLING@RCC.IE
Independent Sexual Violence Advisors for Sex Workers
Independent Sexual Violence Advisors are advocates who are specially trained to support people who have experienced rape and sexual assault, and they provide support from first report to going to court. In some areas of the country there are ISVA’s who work especially with sex workers, and who understand the additional barriers and issues sex workers may face when reporting such crimes. Here is a list of trained sex work ISVA’s in the UK[1];
National
Shona National Ugly Mugs shona@uglymugs.org.uk 0161 629 9861
Kerri National Ugly Mugs kerri@uglymugs.org.uk 0161 629 9861
London
Jacqui Open Doors jacqueline.vennard@nhs.net 07852918404
Anca Open Doors anca.doczi@nhs.net 07506740566
Pamela Spires Trust pamela@spires.org.uk
Midlands
Birmingham
Claire Rape & Sexual Violence Project pw@rsvporg.co.uk
Coventry
Katrina Coventry Rape & Sexual Assault Centre katrina.kavanagh@crasac.org.uk
Nottingham
Victoria POW victoria@pow-advice.co.uk
South West
Bristol
Grace One25 grace.hitchcock@one25,org.uk
Norwich
Jonna Doorway Women’s services jonna@magdalenegroup.org
North West
Merseyside
Rachel Red Umbrella Project Rachel.fowler@changing-lives.org.uk
Yorkshire and Humberside
Leeds
Taylor Basis Yorkshire Taylor.AustinLittle@basisyorkshire.org.uk
North East
Middlesborough
Claire Arch North East c.rodgerson@archnortheast.org
Abby Arch North East a.dowson@archnortheast.org
Carole Arch North East c.yeoh@archnortheast.org
South Tyne
Abbi Shade Project (Northumbria police sex work hub)
abbi.buchanan.4385@northumbria.pnn,police.uk
NB: This may not be a comprehensive list and is only those we are aware of at the time of writing.
Sex Work Support Projects in the UK
National Ugly Mugs will always advise you about support services and refer you to them if you wish. They will advise wherever you are in the UK, whatever your gender, nationality or sector of the sex industry you work. NUM’s new online platform (due to be launched Autumn 2018) will have an interactive map with contact details for organisations offering health, safety and other support services to sex workers in the UK: https://www.uglymugs.org or call the NUM office: 0161 629 9861 e mail: NUM at: admin@uglymugs.org
Ugly Mugs Ireland has a ‘Support Services Directory’ which all registered members can access: https://uglymugs.ie/support/
Beyond the Gaze website has some information about local projects who offer support services to online sex workers https://www.beyond-the-gaze.com/resources/sex-work-projects-uk-reaching-out-to-internet-based-sex-workers/