Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre Christmas Appeal 2020
Rape and sexual abuse change lives - and so do we.
Story
One of the most important things you can say to a survivor is 'I Believe You'. This Christmas we're asking our supporters to give the gift of 'We Believe You' to survivors and donate to support our vital rape crisis services across Edinburgh and the Lothians.
At Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, we work to prevent sexual violence, support survivors and advocate for change.
Last year, we supported 857 people affected by sexual violence and had 470 new referrals to our service. This year has been especially challenging for survivors, and alongside the shadow pandemic of increased violence against women, our specialist life-changing support is needed more than ever.
Demand for our services continues to be high and this year we unfortunately had to take the very difficult decision to temporarily close our waiting lists for some services. We strongly believe that no survivor should have to wait to access our specialist support and we very much welcome the funding recently secured from the Scottish Government which has enabled us to work to reduce our waiting lists.
Any donation, not matter how small, would mean a lot! With your help and generosity we can support as many survivors as possible. Donations go directly towards the costs of delivering all our support and information services.
If you're interested in fundraising, you can create your own JustGiving page and we've some ideas and tips on our website here
It wasnt until I started seeing the support workers that I felt I was being heard and believed for the first time. They gave me the hope and the courage to look forward to the future I thought I'd never see.
Before the support I wasn't coping with my life, I hadn't laughed in months and smiling was a thing of the past. I had just been put on anti-depressants and it seemed like my life was falling apart. The support helped me get back on track, I started smiling again, and laughing and I am still doing so now, even though I am not receiving counselling right now. My life after the counselling is very different and much better to the life before, I am a changed person and I am starting to heal and put the difficulties of the past behind me.
The support I received has helped me to get my life back on track, I often found it difficult to function before, even in normal everyday situations but the support helped with all that, and coping with life is a lot easier.
YOU CAN ALSO SUPPORT OUR WORK BY
>> Believing someone who discloses sexual violence to you
>> Supporting them to make their own choices about what they want to do
>> Challenging abusive and sexist behaviour