News
Rape & Sexual Abuse Service Highland (RASASH) staff & volunteer recruitment
Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland (RASASH) is a new sexual violence support service for the Highlands based in Inverness. Established as a SCIO in July 2014 and affiliated to Rape Crisis Scotland, RASASH is now recruiting for a Support & Development Worker, an Admin & Finance Worker, and for Support Volunteers.
You can find out more about these posts and how to apply on our Vacancies page.
About RASASH
RASASH has been set up to:
• Provide accessible, appropriate and high quality emotional and practical support, information and advocacy for survivors, their non-abusing partners, family and friends.
• Work towards the prevention and ultimately the elimination of sexual violence, supporting social change by raising awareness and understanding of rape and sexual violence, challenging myths and campaigning
• Working with others to improve the way society, organisations and agencies respond to survivors of sexual violence
RASASH will provide support, information and advocacy for anyone, aged 13 or over, who lives in the Highland Council area and who has experienced sexual violence or abuse. The organisation is currently negotiating a lease on premises in Inverness. Over time, and as funding allows, RASASH aims to develop a presence across the whole of the Highland Council area. In the first instance support will be provided by telephone, email and Skype to survivors and their families who cannot travel to Inverness.
Core values underpinning RASASH practice are as follows:
• RASASH believes that anyone who has experienced rape, sexual abuse or sexual assault, regardless of gender, ethnicity, culture or sexual orientation, should have access to non-judgemental & confidential support.
• RASASH believes that no-one, regardless of behaviour, dress or lifestyle, is to blame for any form of rape, sexual abuse or sexual assault they experience.
• RASASH believes that it is everyone’s responsibility to adopt zero tolerance to any form of rape, sexual abuse or sexual assault.
RASASH is currently funded to 31 March 2015 by Scottish Government, and to 31 March 2017 by NHS Highland, and is confident of securing further funding over the next few months. In addition, RASASH has been awarded funding from the SCVO Third Sector Internship Programme to support recruitment of a paid student intern who will work for us during the first half of 2015. RASASH is governed by a Board of 6 Trustees.
Please note that until RASASH is operational, an interim service is in place for survivors of sexual violence seeking support in the Highland area. This is being run jointly by Rape Crisis Scotland, Ross-shire Women's Aid and Victim Support Highland. For more information, please contact the Rape Crisis Scotland National Helpline on 08088 01 03 02.
Survivors' Guide to the Scottish Justice System in translation
Our new video resource 'Survivors' Guide to the Scottish Justice System' is also available in a variety of community languages in addition to the English and subtitled versions.
'Survivors' Guide to the Scottish Justice System' (overview here) - is for anyone who is thinking about reporting a sexual crime or who has already reported and their case is currently in Scottish justice system. The video includes interviews with key professionals and an overview of how to report and what you may expect at each stage of the process.
There is a subtitled version of the video for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing (overview here) and it is also available in Arabic (overview here), French (overview here), Polish (overview here), Slovak (overview here), Chinese (overview here), and Urdu (overview here).
Equally Safe
In June 2014 the Scottish Government and COSLA launched ?Equally Safe: Scotland?s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls?.
This statement to welcome ?Equally Safe? has been jointly produced by key voluntary sector organisations working across Scotland to tackle gender inequality and male violence against women and girls. These organisations are Engender, Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Women?s Aid, Scottish Women?s Convention, White Ribbon Scotland, Women?s Support Project and Zero Tolerance.
The launch of ?Equally Safe? is an important step in taking forward work to tackle violence and abuse. We welcome the continued commitment to support interventions, as well as the explicit acknowledgement that preventing violence against women is dependent upon reducing gender inequality in the broadest sense. This strategy makes it clear that all sectors of society have a responsibility to actively work towards preventing male violence and that prevention and equality measures must be embedded across all sectors.
Survivors' Guide to the Scottish Justice System
Rape Crisis Scotland has produced a new DVD resource aimed at explaining the criminal justice process for survivors of sexual violence.
RSSLatest posts
- Remembering Tansy Main
- Sex crimes in Scotland reach second-highest level in 54 years
- RCS calls for the Scottish Government and MSPs to work together to introduce key legislation for survivors of sexual crime
- Changes announced by the Sottish Government to the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill
- Landmark judgment on corroboration in sexual offence cases
