Unity
Unity is available for all young people of any gender/gender identity aged 12-18.
Our service is free, inclusive, non-judgemental and confidential for survivors who have experienced sexual violence or abuse at any time in their lives. This can include rape, non-consensual image sharing, unwanted touching and kissing (What is sexual violence?)
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 offer support, information and advocacy in the Scottish Borders. Unity has been designed by young people for young people.
Our support is guided by you
We respect and understand how hard it can be to speak to someone about your experience of sexual violence whether it is a recent assault or whether it happened a long time ago.
When you contact us:
We will believe you
We will listen to you
We will support you
You can contact us yourself or ask someone you trust to do it for you.
When you get in touch, we will offer you a face-to-face introductory session with a support worker either at our centre in Galashiels or at a safe place near you such as school, a health centre or youth club. Your support worker will explain what we offer and you can ask any questions you might have.
When support begins, you will be offered up to 12 support sessions. You have the option of face to face, telephone, email, text or zoom support.
You have control over what’s covered in your support sessions. You can use this time in a way that you choose.
We can talk through what support might be helpful for you, you do not need to talk about what happened if you don’t want to. You may wish to focus on the impacts of what happened during support sessions.
We won’t forget how important trust and confidentiality are to you.
