Edinburgh College has launched a new partnership as part of this year’s 16 Days of Action Against Domestic Violence.
As part of the College’s support for the 16 Days of Action campaign, it has launched a new partnership with Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, which will see students who have experienced sexual violence receive one-to-one support.
Students across the Edinburgh College Community who have experienced sexual violence at any time of their life will be offered long-term, trauma-informed, one-to-one support. This support will be offered in blocks of six sessions, with students having access to up to 18 individual sessions if needed.
Any students on the College support waiting list will be given the opportunity to access the normal Rape Crisis services for short-term support while they wait. This is in the form of the Here and Now service for over 18s or the STAR Project for under 18s.
If you would like to refer yourself to this service, please email:
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, a vital source of support and advocacy for those who have experienced sexual violence, has received a £2,000 donation from Amazon Development Centre Scotland.
The Centre, which was set up in 1978, provides a range of services to support women, members of the trans community, non-binary people, and young people (aged 12 – 18) who have experienced any kind of sexual violence in their lives. Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre also offers emotional and counselling support, advocacy service and group support.
This donation will go towards making the centre’s support and information services more accessible for survivors who face barriers accessing support.
Commenting on the donation, Graeme Smith, Managing Director at Amazon Development Centre Scotland, said: “The Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre is an incredibly important charity in our community and we’re pleased to support its team with this donation.”
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, added: “We work to empower survivors and advocate for change, but we need support and donations from the community to continue our services.
“We appreciate this donation from Amazon – it will help us to continue supporting survivors of sexual violence.”
Amazon Development Centre Scotland has been based in Edinburgh since 2004 and is responsible for devising and growing innovations that bring new levels of choice and convenience to hundreds of millions of customers around the world.
It houses teams of leading engineers, scientists, designers and product managers who work on everything from interactive user interface design to large-scale distributed systems and machine learning.
Community donations are one of a number of ways in which Amazon is supporting communities across the UK during COVID-19.
Throughout the pandemic Amazon has provided disadvantaged students with online STEM courses and supported virtual classrooms with no-cost resources from AWS and Amazon Future Engineer.
The company has also teamed up with charity partner Magic Breakfast to deliver more than five million healthy breakfasts to children at risk of hunger in disadvantaged areas around the UK and helped to tackle holiday hunger by providing free breakfasts to children over the summer holidays.
For more information on how Amazon is supporting the UK during COVID-19, click:
Additional support will be made available to Scots recovering from cancer and those who have survived sexual abuse thanks to £3.3 million of National Lottery funding announced today.
The Beatson Cancer Charityand Edinburgh Rape Crisis are amongst 141 Scottish groups receiving awards from The National Lottery Community Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, the funding will help to create a network of support around those who need it most during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centrewill be able to extend the specialist support it offers thanks to an award of £350,000.
Its three-year project, ‘Trauma and Counselling Support for Survivors of Sexual Violence,’ will support adult survivors of sexual violence across Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian. In particular, the funding will enable the Centre to further develop its ‘Still I Am’ (SIA) project for survivors from Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities aged 16 and over, who have had any form of unwanted sexual experience.
Over the next three years, The Centre will be able to reach out to many more people like Queen*. Welcoming the funding, she said: “I am very happy and excited that the SIA project got further funding because it has changed my life.
“I do not know what I would have done without this service and without counselling. I feel that SIA has changed not only mine but also my children’s lives because I can be there for them too. I am very grateful, and I would like to thank The National Lottery Community Fund for their decision because that means the SIA service will help more women like me in the future. Thank you so much.”
Caroline Burrell, Centre Director, Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this award from the National Lottery Community Fund. It recognises not only the vital work we have done over many years supporting survivors of sexual violence, but also the very pressing need to continue to provide our life-changing services.
“Sexual violence, which includes rape, sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse, devastates lives, and without effective support its impacts can be lifelong.
“Over the next three years our trauma-informed work will support hundreds of survivors to build a life beyond sexual violence and abuse. In particular this funding will enable us to further develop our SIA project for survivors of sexual violence from Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities aged 16 and over, who have had any form of unwanted sexual experience.”
This group will deliver specialist trauma-informed support to survivors of sexual violence in Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian. Survivors of rape, sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse will receive emotional support, group support and advocacy support helping them to move on from trauma, and to build their confidence and resilience.
Two more local ‘winners’ in this round of grants are LifeCare and carers organisation VOCAL, who receive £80,000 and £41,000 respectively.
LifeCare, the older people’s support organisation based in Stockbridge, will use their funding to continue its project matching people over 60 (known as the VIPs) with volunteers, aged from 17-92, to facilitate one to one friendships between the VIPs, volunteers and the larger community they create when coming together as part of the wider Vintage Vibes VIP/Volunteer community.
VOCAL, based on Leith Walk, will use the funding to continue development of their short breaks service for carers which provides respite to people with caring responsibilities. VOCAL will also review their short breaks offer in light of the COVID-19 impact, extend the range of short breaks opportunities for carers and develop a social enterprise business proposal for carer holiday accommodation.
Edinburgh-based organisations Corstorphine Dynamo FC, ELREC, Friends of Saughton Park, Governors of Dean Orphanage and Cauvin’s Trust, Grassmarket Community Project, Leith Civic Trust, Pregnancy & Parents Centre, Prestonfield & District Neighbourhood Workers Project, Thistle Health and Wellbeing and YWCA Scotland received support ranging from £5000 right up to Thistle’s £120,000.
Elsewhere in Scotland,breast cancer survivor Susan McGoldrick, 56, welcomed an award of £269,800 to Beatson Cancer Charity for a three-year programme of therapeutic support.
This programme will help hundreds of people across the West of Scotland who are recovering from cancer to better deal with anxiety and any fears of recurrence they may have following completion of or changes to their treatment.
Susan, from Lenzie, completed the pilot programme last month following a cancer diagnosis in 2019. She said: “This National Lottery funding will make a huge difference to many people like me. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I joined and with the programme only being six weeks long and virtual due to COVID-19 restrictions, I wasn’t sure what I would achieve.
“But I have to say it has been a revelation and I feel like a brand, new woman. I have learned so much and feel transformed and it has even inspired me to make recent radical changes in my life. I would like to encourage many more patients to attend if they can.”
The six-week programme of therapeutic groupwork will help people to develop their own coping strategies and will work with them as they develop their own personal plans to engage more with day to day life, their families and the wider community.
Martin Cawley, CEO of Beatson Cancer Charity, said: “We are delighted at the award of this very important grant. The medical treatment process for cancer is difficult enough for people to cope with, but when you add the psychological impact on top, it is especially challenging.
“Even when people have successfully been through their treatment programmes there is always an underlying worry about cancer recurrence. This project supports people to develop their own coping skills, this in turn strengthens their resilience and recovery even further.
“This grant will help greatly as part of the cancer journey and allow many more patients to become involved over next three years. Everyone at Beatson Cancer Charity is absolutely thrilled. Thank you to The National Lottery players without whom this grant would not be possible.”
Announcing today’s funding totalling £3,332,722, The National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Chair, Kate Still, said: “Projects across the country continue to make an amazing contribution the nation-wide response combatting the impact of COVID-19 on communities across Scotland.
“Today’s funding will help thousands more people like Susan and Queen, whose inspiring testimonies highlight how important it is to have a tailored package of support when you are going through the most challenging of circumstances.
“The comfort of knowing someone who understands your journey is at the end of the phone or forms part of a group network of support cannot be under-estimated. This is vital work which we are delighted to support, and all made possible thanks to National Lottery players.”
The National Lottery Community Fund is currently focusing its National Lottery funding in Scotland on those projects which are supporting organisations and communities to respond to the challenge of COVID-19.
Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, a vital source of support and advocacy for those who have experienced sexual violence, has received a £750 donation from Amazon Development Centre Scotland in Edinburgh.
The Centre, which was set up in 1978, provides a range of services to support women, all members of the trans community, non-binary people, and young people (aged 12 – 18) who have experienced any kind of sexual violence in their lives. Continue reading Amazon support for Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre
