Service Principles

We offer listening support which is confidential, non-judgemental, anonymous, and caller-led.

Listening support

We offer a confidential service of listening support provided over the telephone. Our volunteers will listen to what you want to say. They will help you to find ways to express difficult feelings and talk about difficult situations.

Our helpline service is not a counselling service. We never tell callers what to do, nor do we offer advice, or try to influence their decisions. We do not claim to have any answers. Instead, we can raise questions and listen while you explore your options, and how you are feeling about managing your life. We can also provide information regarding other support services, and common ways of reacting to and dealing with the effects of sexual violence.

Confidentiality

You can talk to us about anything in complete confidence. We will never repeat anything you say outside of Cambridge Rape Crisis. We do however discuss our helpline calls with the whole group. This is to get ideas and support from each other and to improve our work. We also hope that this will enable us to provide a better service to our callers as it means that you will not have to repeat anything you have said previously. We ensure this information never reaches anyone else.

We do not report anything that is said to us to the police or any other outside body.

Non-judgemental

We never make judgements about the thoughts, actions, situation, or status of callers. We reject the negative judgements that society often makes against women and girls who have survived rape or abuse. Fundamentally, we believe callers.

Anonymous

You don't have to give us your name or any identifying details about yourself, although if you find you're ringing regularly you might want to give us a name or pseudonym (made-up name) to help us recognise you. The 1471 function is disabled on our phone line, so you can remain fully anonymous.

Caller-led

We know it takes courage to call us and we are here to support you. We understand that it can be difficult to talk and if you don't even want to speak at all, or can only talk a bit, that's OK. If you ever feel uncomfortable about where the conversation might be going, you can say so, and you can also end the call at any time.