Catherine Miles, CEO of SARAC
A Burton charity offering emotional support for victims of sexual abuse is appealing to businesses to help ensure it can carry on its vital work, after seeing a rise in demand in 2022.
The Sexual Abuse and Rape Advice Centre (SARAC) has launched a new corporate sponsor scheme offering the opportunity for businesses to become involved in a very important local charity.
SARAC has helped thousands of sexual assault survivors, including men, women, non-binary people and children, over nearly 30 years of running its services in East Staffordshire and South Derbyshire.
The only specialist rape advice and sexual abuse centre covering the area, it was formed in 1994 by a group of local women who were shocked at the lack of local support for those dealing with the aftermath of sexual abuse during childhood or as adults.
National figures from Rape Crisis show that one in four women and one in 20 men have endured sexual assault of some kind as an adult, while one in six children have been sexually abused.
SARAC offers help for all those aged over 11 who have been through sexual abuse, with the aim of reducing their post traumatic suffering.
The charity’s counsellors are trained to a high standard to offer specialist, face-to-face emotional support. It also runs an outreach service working in local schools and colleges to educate young people and reduce incidence of sexual violence, as well as raising awareness of the availability of the charity should anyone need it.
SARAC holds a prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, as well as The Staffordshire High Sheriff’s Award. It has reported a rise in demand in its services in 2022, delivering support to the same number of survivors in the first half of this year as in the whole of 2021.
SARAC is inviting businesses to support its services so it can employ more people, offer more therapeutic services, increase its training and support for local communities, and do more research, as well as offer more prevention and education programmes.
Between 2020 and 2021, SARAC helped 218 adults plus 83 children and young people. During that year more than 30 volunteers supported the charity with more than 2,700 hours of their time.
Catherine Miles, CEO of SARAC said: “Our charity offers a vital service to help people carry on with their lives after suffering the acute trauma of sexual-related assault. Figures from Rape Crisis show that sexual assault is so prevalent in today’s society that literally anyone could be affected. With that in mind, our charity has never been more important. We want to be there to offer our services to anyone who needs them.
“Absolutely anyone can be referred or refer themselves to our service. Some of those we see come to us for years after the trauma they have undergone.
“Now more than ever, we really need support ourselves so we can carry on with helping others. Sexual abuse is a tough topic but for those who have been through this type of trauma, the acute mental distress can last for years. Counselling has been proven to help people come to terms with what has happened and carry on their lives, as well as reduce the likelihood of repeating abuse down the generations. It’s really vital that we can carry on with our work so we’d love to hear from local businesses who feel our service is something they would like to support.”
SARAC is launching a range of schemes enabling businesses to support their services. Corporate options include adopting SARAC as a charity partner for the year, and encouraging staff to take part in active fundraising such as sponsored cycle rides or other activities.
The charity also offers the opportunity for businesses to take a more ‘hands off’ approach, which could include giving employees the chance to donate part of their salary to SARAC, and matching any donations given with one from the company.
Catherine said: “We have devised a range of schemes which we hope will attract local companies to support us. It would be wonderful to think that with the help of firms in our area, we can continue to offer SARAC’s important services, and expand them, so that we can carry on with our aim of spreading education, awareness, and support for many years to come.”
Businesses which are interested in supporting SARAC are asked to contact Catherine at: [email protected].
