Our Services: Presentations

As part of our work to bring the issues and difficulties of abuse survival and recovery to greater public attention, we give short presentations to interested organisations upon request. Typical organisations are colleges, prison groups, voluntary associations and private companies.

If your own organisation wishes, RASASC can deliver a presentation to your firm or club or or community interest group. This service is free, but if you are able to offer a donation or can do some consequent fundraising on our behalf, that would be great!

We can tell you about our history and why there is a need for our support centre in Surrey. We explain the range of services that we offer and why different survivors and their partner or family may need different types of support at different times as they recover. We will also tell you about the volume of clients we have, their ages and gender, and expose some of the myths surrounding the topic of rape and abuse. We describe the longterm after-effects of sexual violence - these can include depression, self-harm, drug and alcohol misuse, eating disorders, or fear of going out (which can lead to isolation or being unable to go to work). A typical attack can lead to lack of confidence and self-esteem and the inability to trust, especially if it was by someone that you knew before the event. We give advice on how to help with issues such as guilt and shame, how to listen and some useful things to say or not to say to survivors.

We normally send two representatives (who might be staff, trustees, helpline volunteers or RASASC counsellors) to deliver our talk. The presentation is normally for about 30 minutes, followed by Q&As. We alter our presentations slightly each time to fit the “group” that we are speaking to. For example a 6th form college, a golf club or a mental health group will all need a slightly different form of delivery.