Edinburgh Women's Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre
Leaflets and information
You can download and print our leaflets below. If you would like us to send you out free copies please contact us on 0131 556 9437 or email us at info@ewrasac.org.uk and we will send them out to you in an unmarked envelope.
Information for survivors
Information for workers
Information for family, friends amd partners
Who we are
Since 1978 Edinburgh Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (EWRASAC), formerly Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, has provided emotional and practical support, information and advocacy to thousands of women and girls aged 12 and over, who have experienced sexual violence at any times in their lives. This includes rape, sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse and other forms of sexual violence.
We are a specialist agency providing services to survivors of sexual violence in Central and South East Scotland. We are often the first or only agency contacted by female survivors in the area. All workers are trained to a high standard and share the feminist view that violence against women is an abuse of power and should not happen.
Our services are open to women, girls aged 12 and over and transgender people who have experienced any form of sexual violence, at any time in their lives. We also offer support to those who are supporting a survivor, including workers in other agencies.
How we work
We work to empower women: to support women to find and make their own choices. This means that we will not tell you what to do. We can give you information and support, but we believe that you are the expert in your own life – not us.
We offer free and confidential support. This means that what you tell us remains confidential within our support team. We will not tell anyone you are being supported. We will not give anyone any information about you, unless you want us to. There are some circumstances, however, when we are required by law to share information with other agencies. A support worker will always discuss this with you first. If you need more information on our confidentiality policy, please phone us or speak to a support worker.
We will listen, believe and support a woman of any age, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religious and cultural background.
Our activities
Helpline
We offer telephone support through our helpline (0131 556 9437). The line is open at different times. When the line is not staffed, the answering machine will tell you the times of the next lines. You can either call back then, or leave us a message and we will call you back. We will not say who we are when we call unless we speak to you directly, and our telephone number is always withheld. You can also use the helpline for ongoing telephone support.
If you are Deaf or hearing impaired, support can be provided through a minicom, via Type talk or we can arrange for a British Sign Language interpreter. If English is not your first language we can arrange for an interpreter.
Individual face-to-face sessions.
When you contact us we will offer you a face-to-face support session. You can use this time to talk about what you want, and we can talk through what we have to offer or other sources of support. After this, if you would like long-term support, you can go on the waiting list.
Advocacy and crisis service
If you have experienced a recent or attempted rape or sexual assault, or feel they are in crisis and need to see someone as soon as possible. You can contact us on our helpline. When you contact us we will aim to offer you an immediate appointment, within office hours. A home visit during office hours can also be arranged. If you are an individual or a worker at another agency, who is supporting a survivor following a recent rape or sexual assault, you can refer a woman to our service. We can arrange an appointment for her with you if one is available. Our advocacy worker will follow-up with the woman and check it is her choice to access our service.
Group support
From time to time we run support groups with other survivors. These are facilitated by two of our workers and provide opportunities to meet with other survivors and share experiences and support. For further information please see our group support leaflet.
Complementary therapies
We offer free complementary therapies for women (aged 16 and over) who are accessing support from us. We have a female therapist who is available for appointments on Wednesday mornings. For further information on how to book an appointment and treatments available see our complementary therapies leaflet.
East Lothian Sexual Abuse Service (ELSAS)
ELSAS provides support in East Lothian to women,girls aged 12 and over and transgender people, who are currently experiencing or have experienced sexual abuse. You can contact ELSAS on 07800 604 164 or email elsas@ewrasac.org.uk. This service is based in Haddington every Monday and in Musselburgh every Wednesday, and can also arrange to visit you at home or help financially if you have difficulties with mobility, travel or transport costs. ELSAS accepts referrals from other agencies that are supporting female survivors from East Lothian. See ELSAS leaflet for further information.
Friends, family, partners and other supporters
We offer telephone and face-to-face support, information and advice to anyone who is supporting a woman, girl aged 12 and over or transgender people who have experienced sexual violence. If you are a worker in another voluntary or statutory agency, you may also be interested in accessing training from us - please see our training calendar for further information.
Men and boys
We do not offer ongoing support to male survivors. However, we can offer limited helpline support and provide information on services for male survivors.
Volunteering
We rely on volunteers to be able to provide telephone and face-to-face support, and welcome volunteers to contribute in other roles and as Board of Directors. If you would like to apply please contact us for an application pack on 0131 557 6737 or info@ewrasac.org.uk. We are particularly interested in recruiting volunteers who speak additional languages. When we are running our next training we will invite you to an introductory training ‘taster day’ to find out more about EWRASAC and its work. After the ‘taster days’ we will ask you to attend a short informal interview. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in our volunteer support worker training programme which will take place in Edinburgh city centre.
Training
We provide high quality training to workers in other agencies who work with female or male survivors of sexual violence at your workplace or another venue which suits you. We also run a series of one-day training courses for workers which include:
- Working with survivors: Day 1 and 2
- Legal issues seminar
- Survivors and mental health seminar: 1 and 2
- Survivors and self-harm
- Survivors and suicide
Full course details and information about fees and booking a place can be found in our new 2009-2010 training programme or contact us on 0131 557 6737. Download our training calendar for 2009-10.
Campaign and awareness-raising
We aim to change attitudes about violence against women and improve services and legal provision for female survivors. We work in partnership with other groups at local and national level, offer talks to schools and community groups and get involved in a variety of other activities as part of working towards our goal of ending violence against women.
Supporting our work
You can support our work by becoming a member for free. If you or your organisation would like to become a member please contact us for a membership pack.
You can also support our work by
● Believing a woman or girl who tells you she’s been assaulted.
● Supporting her to make her own choices about what she wants to do.
● Challenging abusive behaviour or views which promote violence.
Please contact us if you have any questions about any of our services.
