BME Survivors
Our service is free, inclusive, non-judgemental, and confidential for survivors who have experienced sexual violence or abuse at any time in their lives. What is sexual violence?
Our Sunrise service is inclusive to women aged 18+ of any race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, or religion/cultural background. Our Unity service is inclusive to survivors aged between 12-18 of any race, ethnicity, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, ability, or religion/cultural background.
We will always respect your religion, ethnicity, and culture; you are in control of your support and what you share with us. You do not need to give us your personal details, such as your real name or address. If English is not your first language, we can provide an interpreter.
We can provide support for all forms of sexual violence such as:
- Sexual Abuse
- Childhood sexual abuse
- Rape
- Sexual Assault
- Sexual Harassment
- Sex trafficking
- Forced Marriage
- Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
- Honour based violence
We understand that you may experience barriers that can make seeking support more difficult, such as:
- Being a part of a small religious and/or ethnic community and have concerns about confidentiality.
- English is not your first language.
- You may not want to share identifiable information, such as your real name or address.
- You may have experienced sexual violence in another country.
- You might be unsure if what you experienced was sexual violence.
- You have previously experienced discrimination and/or racism from services.
- The person who is abusing you could be a partner, ex-partner and/or another member of the household.
- You may be under a lot of pressure from family and community.
What you can expect from us
We will believe you.
We will listen to you.
We will support you
- We understand that the first step can take a lot of courage, you don’t need to give your real or full name.
- We will do everything we can to make accessing our services as easy as possible: you can contact us bytext, phone or email.
- We can arrange for an interpreter if needed.
- Within our working week, we will always try to provide support at a day and time that suits you.
- We won’t forget how important trust and confidentiality are to you.
- We will not share your information with your family, friends, other services or contact the Police unless you ask us to. The exception to this is if there are child or adult protection concerns. We are required to share this information, but we will tell you wherever possible.
- All our workers are women.
We understand that everyone reacts and feels differently after traumatic experiences so whatever you are feeling is a normal response to what happened to you.
Our support work is guided using an intersectional approach. This means that we acknowledge and seek to address the multiple forms of discrimination a survivor may have faced, such as racism, sexism and ablism and how these intersecting inequalities can create barriers to seeking support.
If you would like to access support or find out more, contact us. You can also find links to BME services in our Useful Contacts.
