Rape And Sexual Abuse Support Centre
Guildford, Surrey

RASASC (Guildford) - Our History

The Rape And Sexual Abuse Support Centre (RASASC) is a UK Registered Charity based in Guildford, Surrey, founded in 1992 with the aim of helping male and female survivors of rape or sexual abuse. Clients can talk to us in confidence using our Phone Helpline or through attending individual counselling sessions or our same-sex Self-Help Group Meetings.

1992 Need identified for a referral centre covering Surrey and Hampshire. 1993 Initial funding found. First volunteers recruited. September launched telephone Helpline for two evenings per week. 1995 Face-to-Face counselling service began. 1996 Telephone service extended to five evenings per week. October 1996 achieved UK Registered Charity status. 1997 Employment of first part-time paid worker. 1998 Group facilitation training began. First self-help support groups established in September. 1999 All existing services enhanced and continued. Review and restructure of organisation undertaken. 2000 Two intakes of volunteers achieved, enabling possibility to extend RASASC services. 2001 Telephone Helpline service extended to six evenings per week. Office rented and administrator employed, website established. Daytime counselling and family support sessions established. 2002 Joined The Survivors Trust (national umbrella organisation). Established telephone supervision for other professionals. New publicity drive and extensive coverage in the media. First fundraising event. Obtained Lankelly Foundation grant. Established specialised training for other organisations. Face-to-Face counselling: took on RASASC’s first male counsellor. 2003 Plan implemented for the future of ongoing groups for survivors at RASASC. Two intakes of volunteers. New website with extensive foreign language facility available to our client base. 2004 Moved to new office. Resolved a financial crisis threatening the survival of RASASC in summer/autumn. Began to plan and fund an expansion of RASASC to increase our volunteer base from 30-70 persons during the next two years. Established a linked counselling service in Woking.

2005 Received Big Lottery Funding to enable focus on training new Helpline volunteers. Established new training format, with two more intakes of female Helpline volunteers to work from the RASASC office. Began training male volunteers for a new Male Helpline set up with Victim Fund support, to open in 2006. Guildford Borough Council offered larger and permanent premises at low rent. Ran new support groups, ongoing training and workshops to support Helpline volunteer work. 2006 Focused on fundraising events involving the volunteers. External applicants recruited as further RASASC Trustees. New system introduced to handle regular helpline callers. Recruited counsellors from outside RASASC to increase the number from 10 to 15. Added an extra counselling night in Guildford. Planning began for move to larger premises rented from Council. 2007 Renovated new permises (paint, furniture etc.) and completed relocation. Helpline calls continued to rise by over 30%. Achieved a greater spread of funding sources, providing a larger number of smaller grants. Recruited 2 new counsellors (returning our total to 15) and increased volunteer support to 70. Held our first annual Charity Gliding Day (May). 2008 New logo. Male helpline closed in February. General service provision continued at steady level while efforts concentrated towards recruiting a new Chair and Trustees for 2009. Website improved after 2 years relative dormancy. Faced threat of closure in Dec 2008 due to lack of funding. Situation saved by the Peter de Haan Charitable Foundation and Gallaher Ltd. 2009 Held our 15th AGM. Website restyled and expanded to be more interactive and carry updates about current fundraising. Experimented using 3 helpline volunteers on regular callers' night. Newsletter improved by better layout, adoption of images and conversion to PDFs. Woking counselling ceased. Funding became more difficult due to recession. Situation eased by June with allocations from (new) Lloyds TSB Foundation for England & Wales and Govt Equalities Office (Special Funding). Held art competition for 2010 calender. Autumn training to create first Podcast.