Background

In 2016 WRASAC applied for funding to establish a dedicated service for young people. This was in response to rising numbers of young people seeking support from the centre.

Evidence suggests that early and effective intervention is essential to limiting the long term impacts on young people. Impacts which include poorer outcomes for health, well-being, education and employment.

Following the recruitment of a Senior Young People’s Support Worker at the start of 2017 a service dedicated to young people was established and launched formally in February 2018.

Dundee and Angus Young Survivors Project

The project’s mission is that young people with experience of sexual violence, abuse and exploitation receive age appropriate support where and when they need it. The service offers confidential and professional, emotional and practical support to all young survivors - of all gender identities - aged from 11 to 18; who have experienced sexual violence at any time; and who live in Dundee or Angus.

The young people we support

We support young people whose experiences include child sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, grooming, online abuse, rape, sexual assault, and sexual bullying. Such an experience can generate many difficult thoughts and feelings. A traumatic experience like this can be confusing and make everyday life harder to deal with.

Young people may feel angry, unhappy, frightened or lonely. They could be having flashbacks, nightmares, or panic attacks. It is not unusual for young people to feel they are responsible for what happened and feel shame, or feel like hurting themselves.

We start by listening, allowing the young person to talk about anything. We always believe them and can talk through their experience and why they are not to blame. The support is led by the young person and they only ever have to talk about what they want to.

The support offered is age appropriate; is imaginative and creative; is organised in a variety of contexts; and is flexible in terms of place and time. We also support friends, families and professionals and can provide training to organisations and groups.

Young people are encouraged to get involved in service development and this includes young people who have not experienced sexual violence. All young people are at the centre of the work of this project.