Who can call?

We talk to all women and girls who have experienced or are experiencing sexual violence or abuse. We will work with any woman or girl who feels she needs our service. Women and girls call us weeks, months or years afterwards, and some call us while abuse is still ongoing. It is never too early or late to talk about the feelings and fears you have surrounding sexual violence.

Women and girls from all kinds of background phone us, including:

Young survivors

Survivors with disabilities

Survivors with mental health difficulties

Survivors from minority ethnic backgrounds

LGBT survivors

Supporters of survivors

We also welcome calls from people of all genders who want to talk about their role in supporting women, whether they are family, friends, or professionals. We also use the same non-judgemental, caller-led principles to help such callers explore their own feelings, since we recognise that supporting a survivor can be difficult.

Referrals

We consider self referral to be essential – we will not call a survivor who hasn't personally asked us to. An important part of healing from sexual violence for any woman is being able to take control over her life. Sometimes family and friends, wanting to help a survivor, suggest she contact us and occasionally put pressure on her to do so. For every survivor, coping with the trauma is an individual process and it is essential that she follows her own path of healing. We will always be glad to talk to family and friends to help them find ways of supporting a survivor.

Male survivors

We are happy to take an initial call from any male survivor, but are not able to offer on-going support.

While we recognise the experiences and pain of men who have suffered any kind of sexual violence, here at CRCC we have found that a women-only service provision is an invaluable environment for many female callers. Therefore, we do not have the expertise or experience to give on-going support to male survivors, but are more than happy to signpost them to other services which can. See the contacts section for more info.