Boost for fight against sexual abuse

Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Hogg has helped to win almost £120,000 for three charities that support victims of sexual abuse.

Devon Rape Crisis, Cornwall Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (CRASAC) and the Womens Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre – Cornwall (WRSAC) have all been given significant funding for new projects via the Government’s competed fund.

Devon Rape Crisis, which offers specialist support to women across Devon and Torbay who have been victims of rape, childhood sexual abuse or harassment, has be awarded £17,500 to develop a project which will benefit disabled women who are victims of sexual violence.

Fee Scott, service manager at Devon Rape Crisis, said: ”Silence and invisibility are hallmarks of both disability and of sexual violence and by improving our facilities for disabled women we will be able to counter this.

“Giving women opportunities to speak out is a vital part of recovery and will ensure that more women are able to ‘get on with their lives’.

“One of the unique things about sexual violence is that the vast majority of victims, about 85 per cent, never report the crime to the police

“They find it difficult to speak out, they find it difficult to tell the police but they also find it difficult to tell their partner, their mum, their best friend, so quite often rape crisis organisations are the very first time they have talked about it.”

WRSAC,is based in Bodmin but provides a service to people from mid, north and east Cornwall. It provides helplines and support services for women, teenage girls and their families who are victims/survivors of any form of sexual violence, has received £56,000 which it will use to reduce waiting times for services.

It will do this by providing additional outreach, support and counselling. It will also provide a number of pattern changing programmes for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Maggie Parks, WRSAC chief executive, said: “In the last couple of years very high profile sexual abuse and child sexual abuse cases have lead to more people trying to access help and support.

“Women increasingly understand that if they come forward they are going to be believed so referrals have massively increased and for the last couple of years we have had a waiting list.

“You can imagine that if you have had the courage to come forward, to then be told that you have to wait for between 12 and 16 weeks before you can see anybody is really difficult.

“This money is going to help greatly reduce our waiting list and be able to offer services to women who are waiting often up to three or four months.”

Truro-based CRASAC, which counsels and supports survivors of rape and sexual abuse – has received £45,825 to fund two projects.

The first will help male victims in north and east Cornwall through one to one counselling and group work while the second, the Lily Project, aims to raise awareness of female genital mutilation throughout the county.

Kim Lyall, coordinator at CRASAC, said: “Because transport is a major problem in parts of Cornwall, particularly the north and east, we can now fund our counsellors to visit the clients rather than asking them to travel.

“We also plan to run another support group for men, this will be in addition to the one we run one in Truro which is also affected by problems with public transport.

“As part of the Lily Project we plan to raise awareness in Cornwall for any health professionals, midwives, anybody who works with women and children. This work has been initiated by Royal Cornwall Hospital with CRASAC as the counselling lead.

Tony Hogg, said: “I am delighted that my team has been able to work with these three worthy charities to bring a significant amount of Government funding into Devon and Cornwall. I know that this money will be targeted directly at victims.

“We know that when money is given to enthusiastic organisations which are run by experts in their field that the impact on those they set out to support is massive.

“It is my job to make sure that my office can provide this level of targeted support to such organisations so that victims are not left to deal with society’s most heinous crimes on their own.”